FERMANAGH hurling manager, Joe Baldwin, was more than happy with his team’s performance as they produced an impressive performance to run out 17 points winners over Cavan on Tuesday night.

The foundations were laid in the first half, as Fermanagh produced some quality hurling which pleased Baldwin: “Look we played Cavan earlier in the year and there was only a couple of points in it and then we got a wee bit of a lesson in Ballybofey against Donegal last week and it was a kick in the backside they needed. So today they get a pat on the back.

“We righted the wrongs from the Donegal game I felt, particularly in the first half.

“It was as good a hurling as you would have seen anywhere in this competition.”

This was down to Fermanagh doing the basics so much better than a Cavan team that looked very rusty, and this was clear to be seen in their shooting and the work rate of the players, in particular, the willingness of the full forward line to be runners for the ball.

“We worked an awful lot on it [shooting] right up until Sunday morning actually,” explained Baldwin.

“We have such an array of talent there and quality forwards.

“I haven’t seen the stats tonight but I think we had eight different scorers from play.

“We try to work on a couple of key elements and one is certainly discipline in the tackle and two would be the use of the ball and if we can get good quality ball into that inside forward line.

“And the keywords are quick and quality - the two Qs - if we can get that in them boys will cause harm and the boys did tonight. We are pretty pleased.”

Baldwin also praised the support the full forward line of Tom Keenan, Jimmy Tormey and Dannan McKeogh received to create so many scoring opportunities.

“We are trying to work all the time on holding the ball up. And the other element was that the cavalry was arriving -Caolan Duffy, Brian Teehan, Luca McCusker.

“I thought Ben Corrigan tonight, while he played at centre three quarters I thought the work that he done was phenomenal.

“He was the player that dropped out when the boys were making the runs and covered the space so Cavan didn’t have an easy out ball.”

That was very evident in the first half, but the second half saw Cavan gain more of a foothold in the game.

Baldwin expected this: “They were always going to have a wee golden patch.

“They got four from play and eight or nine from frees. That is maybe something to work on.

“We responded well and kept the shape, got Dannan on the ball, got Jimmy on the ball, put the ball in the onion bag and killed the game off and we did that. The game was probably over as a contest after their wee golden spell.

“Look overall it is a work in progress. Daithi [Hand], Peter [Galvin] and Aaron [Smiley], the new management, would be pretty pleased with that. I’m not sure what Annie [Higgins] the psychologist could pick out of that but look we are relatively pleased.

Next up is a trip to Queen’s University, Belfast on Saturday.

Baldwin admitted he may lose some players to their university teams but he added the main objective in the first game of the season was to get the win concluding: “[We] certainly did that.”