Erne Gaels assistant manager Colum Monahan knows that they will face a massive test this week when they come up against Derrygonnelly to decide who tops Group A and claims the place directly in the SFC semi-final.
The Belleek outfit have shown good form in their opening two games as they have picked up wins over Belnaleck and Roslea but Sunday will be another step up.
“Derrygonnelly are what they are, they are a very experienced side and it will be another battle but we’ll just get stuff into place towards the end of the week and we’ll look forward to it,” said Monahan.
On Saturday night Erne Gaels finished strongly to see off Roslea but Monahan admits that they weren’t happy with parts of their performance.
“We wouldn’t be happy with the overall performance but the result and the finish to the game, we would be quite happy with. Still there is lots of tidying up to do and plenty for us to work on going into the Derrygonnelly game.”
Roslea provided a real test for Erne Gaels and Monahan says that’s what they expected.
“We knew coming up the road it wasn’t going to be soft. Roslea put up a good battle last week so we knew they are obviously at a good level that we had to match and just hopefully that our legs might carry us through in the last ten minutes or so which probably proved to be the case,” he added.
That is two weeks in a row that Roslea have been right in the game up to the closing quarter when the tie has gone away from them. Manager Ciaran Murphy though was pleased with the performance of his side.
“We were competitive for three-quarters of the game and then a few things went against us and it was disappointing in the end. 
“I think though that we are actually playing well. It was a good first half, we had two good goals chances and if we had taken them then it could have been a different second half. They then got a couple of points ahead and we went out of the system we were playing and they caught us on the break a few times. They are a very good side,” he stated.
The Shamrocks now face a shoot-out against Belnaleck on Sunday for that third place in the group.
“That’s what we would have targeted at the start of the year, stay in the Senior Championship, get to the quarter-final and take it from there so it is a massive game this weekend.  Belnaleck have had similar results to us but they will be targeting this game too and looking to get to the quarter-finals. 
“I think if we can bring the performance we have this last two weeks and just extend it to 60 minutes we shouldn’t be far away,” concluded Murphy.