Fermanagh manager Rory Gallagher is hoping that his side will be looking towards the promotion battle at the top end of Division Three after Sunday’s rescheduled game against Sligo in Markievicz Park.
The game against the Yeatsmen was due to be played last Sunday but was postponed due to an unplayable pitch and Gallagher and his players will be targeting a third successive win when the game goes ahead this week which would have them eyeing up a promotion challenge.
“That’s certainly a position we would like to be in on Sunday evening. I think if we can get the result on Sunday then we can definitely look upwards. It would leave us in a position where you could start to look towards it but, no different than we say to the players, we will just take it week on week. 
“We have to focus on our training and make sure that we do everything right this week and deliver a very good performance at the weekend,” he insisted.
He knows though that he will be coming up against a Sligo side who will have been lifted by their victory over Wexford in their last game.
“Sligo have always been very good in Markievicz Park over the last number of years and they have won an awful lot of their games there but that’s not an overly big deal for ourselves. 
“We will work hard and prepare well this week and then we need to ensure that we deliver a bit more consistency than we have shown in our games so far,” he added.
Fermanagh showed an improvement against Offaly from their first game against Wexford and while Gallagher says that there is positives to take from the opening two games, he stresses that there is plenty of improvement to be made too.
“I see a lot of positive signs of improvement and I also see huge areas to improve on. I think defensively, despite giving away a number of very soft goals, we have done a number of good things in all of the games but up front I would like us to be a lot more clinical and maybe some of our decision making can be that little bit better,” he said.
Sunday’s game could also see a first outing of the league for the Corrigan brothers, Ruairi and Tomás, who have now recovered from injury with the extra week having possibly put Tomás in contention to feature at some stage.
“Ruairi trained really well all week and he would have been in the panel last Sunday and Tomás is now fully fit and once he gets a couple of sessions in this week he hopefully will be available for the weekend. 
“You would like to think that nothing untoward will happen during the week albeit that we will be training at a fairly high tempo so you never know, but from that point of view, that’s the plus side of the game being a week later. 
“Obviously, you would love to have the game played and had the weekend free which was planned but unfortunately the weather hit and there is nothing you can do,” said Gallagher.
Indeed, Gallagher has very few injury concerns ahead of the game with only Tom Clarke ruled out while Eamon McHugh is a doubt.
“We did a bit of training on Saturday which is normal before a game and then we trained fully on Sunday. The squad is in very good health and we have very few muscle injuries for this time of the season which is great. 
“Tom Clarke had a fracture in his arm and we are waiting on him to come back and Eamon McHugh had a hamstring strain but we hope he won’t be far away.
“I know you can get unlucky with injuries at times but I think it is a credit to the work that the boys have put in with regards their strength work and their overall fitness and the conditioning that they done themselves in the off season that we are in a position were we don’t have very many injuries. That’s a very positive thing to have at this time of the year,” concluded the Fermanagh manager.