Fermanagh’s ace scorer Eimear Smyth hit 4-3 in the Erne County’s predictably facile victory on a score of 10-12 to 0-5 over Kilkenny- in deepest Dunmore at the weekend.

For team manager CJ McGourty, it was a job done and a chance to look at his options on the bench as he spoke to The Impartial Reporter on the long journey home.

Smyth was accompanied on the scoring charts by Blaithin Bogue (1-02), Aoife McCabe (1-03), goal scorers Caoimhe Gallagher (2), Bronagh Smyth (1), Joanne Doonan(1) while there were also points from Roisin Gleeson and Niamh McManus in the comprehensive win.

Despite Kilkenny opening the scoring, it was to be their only score of the half as Fermanagh led 5-06 to 0-01.

The dominance continued for the second 30 minutes and the win kept Fermanagh top of Division Four.

Next up, CJ and his team have a really tough away assignment at the weekend to Limerick who were beaten in last year’s All-Ireland JFC final.

But for now, promotion from Division Four is the big goal for the versatile ex-Antrim dual star who lined out with Tyrone senior hurlers last season.

“It gave us a chance to look at fringe players and our goal for the weekend was to stay top of the League and we have achieved that.

“We went down and did a professional job, and we got a lot people game time and allowed us to rest a few injuries that we picked up over the last few weeks,”. he said.

“Eimear scored 4-3 and is a class player and we have managed to get quite a few players back in action this year.

“It took a lot of work as I had to go meet people and try and rebuild confidence in some of the girls who had stepped away for various reasons.

“Joanne Doonan coming back from Australia is a big boost and there was one or two that I had to go and meet and explain where we wanted to go.”

And CJ is happy that they are back on board.

“Kate Murphy, Courtney’s sister is back on board and that is another boost for us as well she will take a few weeks to get up to speed but I believe we have got the best players in Fermanagh in the squad which is very important.”

He added: “We had a tough test against Leitrim last week and now we have Limerick away this weekend which does not make it any easier.

“If we get over that we would finish top of the league and end up in the semi-final.

“There is very little between the top four and five teams in our Division, so we just want to win that semi-final to make sure we get promoted.”

“Limerick are a good outfit and were in the All-Ireland JFC final which they lost narrowly to Down.

“They have not started the league as well as they might have hoped but I know they had four or five girls missing because they were on an extended break but they have been back over the last week or two so we know it will be a tough test and another long journey to the far end of the country.

“They need points too so they will be gunning for us, and Grace Lee and Roisin Ambrose are two of their top performers.”

“Geographically it has not been great for us but that is the hand we have been dealt with.

“Recovery will be very important this week as we had an eight-hour return journey and these are the small factors that you need to deal with.”