Fermanagh manager Joe Baldwin is keen to see his side make it back to back wins when they take on Roscommon in Derrylin on Sunday (2pm).

The Ernemen produced a superb display in beating a fancied Mayo side and league form will be important moving into championship given the short space now between the two competitions.

“One victory won’t make a summer,” said Baldiwn. “I was listening to inter-county managers talking over the weekend in regards football and something struck me; it is basically that there is no time between the end of the league and the start of the championship and league form is going to be so important now going into the beginning of the championship.

“It is essential now that we back up that Mayo win albeit it is going to be very difficult against quality opposition and we expect a really tough challenge but it is one that the Mayo game has shown us that if we apply ourselves right we are capable of putting two wins back to back.”

Fermanagh will face a Roscommon side who will be under new management after the previous management stepped down following the loss to Louth in the last round and Baldwin expects they will get a bounce from that.

“There will be some sort of a bounce from it and some players who probably weren’t involved will probably come back for whatever reasons. But we can just concentrate on ourselves because every hurling game takes on a life of its own,” he said.

The sides met last year in a game that Roscommon won in Brewster Park in the championship but Baldwin feels there werepositives to take out of that from a Fermanagh perspective.

“If you remember back to that day, Roscommon needed to win and they were very wary of score difference as well to make it through to the final so they really came out all guns blazing.

“We gave an awful lot of the squad a run out that day and I think we made five changes at half time and when we brought the more established boys on we won the second half.

“It just shows what we are capable of doing and I’m expecting another tough match, no quarter asked or given. They need points on the board as much as we do and Sunday’s results could have a massive bearing on the table going forward.

“We are sitting quite comfortable in mid-table at the minute but the reality is that if we don’t do the business on Sunday we could be bounced back into a relegation scrap again.”

Baldwin will be forced into changes from the side that started against Mayo with some players unavailable, although others are returning.

“The squad will be tested this weekend, we don’t have Brian Teehan, we don’t have Jimmy Tormey but we welcome back players of the calibre of Danny Teague and Ciaran Breslin. Aidan Flanagan also played in a challenge game at the weekend which is very good for him. It is very much a squad effort and if we can get a second result it would be fantastic,” he said.

He acknowledges though that discipline will be key and knows that Fermanagh cannot afford to give away as many frees as they did against Mayo.

“It is something we need to put right. We scored 2-16 from play which is phenomenal and we only conceded 2-04 from play which is fantastic but on the other hand we conceded 12 points from frees and we cannot do that.

“Every county has an expert free taker and they will punish you. We are an intelligent group of players and we have to know that we cannot do that. The key to this game is our discipline and if we can cut down on our fouls we will have a serious chance of winning this game.

And he is expecting there to be little between the sides at the final whistle.

“I think this will be very, very close and there will be one puck between the teams. We need that little grain of sand to tip in our favour, the last day it took a wonderful save from Mark Curry were the day against Monaghan the ball dropped in.

“We are well prepared and I don’t think we will be too far away,” he added.

 

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