Fermanagh Minor manager Niall McElroy believes that the structure of the quarter finals of the Ulster Minor Football Championship need amended and that his side should not be facing an away game against Group B winners Tyrone.

Fermanagh finished fourth in Group A so will travel to Healy Park on Saturday (1pm) to take on the Red Hands who topped their group.

McElroy feels that it just makes a very tough game even tougher.

“Away to the top team in the other group is the most difficult draw we could have got. Tyrone are an outstanding team, we face a big challenge and going away to Healy Park makes it even more difficult.

“Tyrone shouldn’t have home advantage for the game. It is wrong that a top team in one group has home advantage over the fourth placed team in the other group. There is obviously a clear difference in levels between a team that finishes in first place and fourth place and a top team has earned a big enough reward by trying to finish as best team in their group without giving them home advantage on top of that,” said McElroy.

The sides have already met this year with Tyrone win the league encounter between the sides and while McElroy was happy with some aspects of Fermanagh’s play that day, he knows he will face a different team on Saturday.

“Tyrone didn’t have their full squad that day so it will be a different team we are facing on Saturday. We played well in patches in that game and can take confidence from that but we would have to play like that for longer periods if we are to trouble them,” he added.

Fermanagh rounded off their group campaign last Saturday with a heavy 2-18 to 0-02 defeat to a particularly strong Derry side in Owenbeg. Fermanagh failed to get their hands on ball for any sustained spell in that game and McElroy knows that is an area they have to improve on this weekend.

“I want our lads to give everything they have. It is knock out football now so if we lose we are out and that should be enough to drive them on.

“We need to get our hands on the ball as much as possible. We didn’t do that against Derry and were punished for it. I want to see can we show the learnings from throughout the year and put it together to give a real good account of ourselves on Saturday,” he said.

Tyrone will be red hot favourites to win on Saturday and book their place in the last four and McElroy wants to see his side use being written off as motivation and put in a performance.

“The pressure is off on Saturday, Tyrone are expected to win.

“Being written off can bring motivation. If every player can lift their game and use that motivation in the right way then we can put in a good team performance.