Fermanagh forward Darragh McGurn was delighted to see them make a winning start to their league campaign last Saturday against Longford, but he stresses that the key now is to back it up when they take on Offaly in Tullamore this Sunday.

McGurn, who landed two superb points in the first half, was pleased to be back out on the pitch after a frustrating pre-season.

A hip issue ruled him out of the McKenna Cup, but he returned with a strong performance against Longford.

“It is great to be back. It was a long five or six weeks of not really knowing what the end point was at times, so this was my first game in a long time,

“I haven’t really done much training either, so I’m just glad to be back on the pitch.

“It was great to be back out for the first game. That’s what you aim for at the start of any year – to be playing throughout the league, and then the championship too,” he said.

McGurn felt it was important to get points on the board early and build some momentum ahead of the trip to Tullamore.

“Last year, we got off to a brutal start when we lost our opening game to Antrim at Brewster Park. It was one of only three home games.

“This year, we were thinking, ‘If we get that first win then we are looking up the table instead of starting from the bottom as we did last year’.

“It just gives you that wee bit of momentum and builds a bit of a winning mentality, going forward.

“We know this year that we are in a great position, in terms of the work we have done, and the level we are at compared to last year,” he added.

Impressive

And it wasn’t only the result that pleased the Ernemen on Saturday – the performance was impressive, too.

“The performance is probably even more important than the result because you know that the work you have done is actually paying off.

“It would be worse if you were papering over cracks, if you were winning but not actually playing well, but the fact that we are playing really good football and not conceding any goals gives us confidence.”

The Belnaleck man says that the win and the performance combined will give them confidence, but the big thing now is to do it all over again this week against the Faithful County.

“The Longford win won’t matter if we don’t back it up this weekend and get a good result, but it will give us massive confidence.

“I know belief is a big thing, but in order to have belief you have to have a bit of evidence there, and now we have that.

“In the first game, we can see the potential that we have and now it is about backing that up in the next game,” he stated.

However, McGurn knows that Fermanagh face a big test in Tullamore against an Offaly side who will have taken great confidence themselves from their win over Antrim last week.

“It won’t get any easier from here on. Offaly spent last year in Division Two and competed well in a lot of games, and they are probably stronger than they were last year. They are a bit like us in terms of being an energetic, young, fit side.

“We know it will be tough, but we hope to gather another bit of momentum this weekend and we are confident that we are capable of beating Offaly in Tullamore,” said McGurn.

He also feels that with manager Kieran Donnelly now in his second year, the team are more attuned to the way he wants them to play.

“Kieran puts in a massive amount of work and he is a real Fermanagh man and wants the best for us.

“His style of play is probably starting to come through a bit more now that we’ve got the majority of players in Fermanagh available.

“We have big Che [Cullen] back, we have Ultan Kelm back, so the way he wants to play is probably coming a bit easier now and you can see that at the weekend.

“Athletically, we are at a different level to what we were last year. We have pace and power all over the field, and that just allows us to play the way that Kieran wants us to play,” he said.