By Katrina Brennan

WHEN the Fermanagh squad flew home from Vilamoura in Portugal last Wednesday night, Declan McCusker took the early morning flight that day because waiting at home was his 12-day-old baby boy Joe.

The father-of-two acknowledged he’s “very lucky” to have been able to jet off with the team on a pre-championship training camp given his wife Zara was not long after giving birth but baby Joe “had a good week”, so it all worked out, smiled the Ederney man.

McCusker has been around the panel for 15 seasons now and this was his first trip abroad for a training camp. He recalled trips to Breaffy House with Pete McGrath, the Lough Erne under Rory Gallagher and the closest they came to a trip abroad was to a sun-soaked Foto Island in Cork during Peter Canavan’s tenure.

So a four-night trip to Portugal was welcomed preparation for Down in the Ulster Championship this Saturday night, said the Erne skipper.

“It was good to be away together and have more time because when you’re at home you are trying to do a bit of video work and you’re squeezing it in after training and then maybe boys aren’t as focused. But when you’re away you’ve got that time just to spend time to do your work on the pitch and you’ve loads of time to do your video work and different bits of analysis.

“It was brilliant to have that time together and even outside of training, you’re spending time with the boys and you’re bonding and it definitely brings the group closer.”

Pitch sessions and gym work was the order of the day in the Algarve with Down firmly in their minds.

You have to go back to 2018 for Fermanagh’s last Ulster Championship victory. They beat Armagh in the quarter-finals before dispatching Monaghan in the semi to set up an Ulster decider with Donegal which they ultimately lost on a baking hot day in Clones.

The 2019 season saw Fermanagh pitted with Donegal once more and it was an early first round exit, beaten 0-9 to 0-15.

The Covid year of 2020 saw the competition take place in November and Down dispatched of the Ernemen in the opening game with ease in Brewster after a strong second half display from the Mourne outfit.

In 2021 Monaghan dumped Fermanagh out with a 1-21 to 0-14 victory and in 2022 Tyrone ended hopes of the elusive Anglo Celt with a seven-point win in the preliminary round.

In 2023, Derry hammered the Ernemen on home turf on their way to lifting the Ulster title and last year, eventual All-Ireland champions Armagh set their stall out for the season with a 3-11 to 0-9 win in Brewster.

“We definitely haven’t got the rub of the green when it comes to draws but that’s the way Ulster is, it’s so, so competitive and tough,” McCusker said.

“There are a lot of boys in our squad haven’t won an Ulster Championship game. Seven years is a long time to be waiting for one. It’s massive for the group and for the development of a lot of the players.

“To win a game in Ulster Championship just builds confidence and it’s definitely something that we need to do,” said 34-year-old McCusker.

Standing between Fermanagh and that sought after provincial victory is Conor Laverty’s Down who’ve just dropped Down from Division Two, albeit somewhat unluckily after beating table-toppers Monaghan on the final day but other results went against them.

McCusker knows what to expect from the Mournemen, especially in championship as he recalls Down All-Ireland winning manager McGrath, who later managed Fermanagh, saying, ‘it wouldn’t matter how Down went in the league, the league didn’t matter, but come championship Down teams believe they can win Ulster and that’s it’.”

So Fermanagh will need to be at their best if they’re to end the wait.

“There’s been a lot of talk about Conor Laverty the last couple of years and the great work he’s doing with them. They’ll go into the game as favourites but we have nothing to fear, there’s very little between the teams,” said McCusker.

“We’ve both been yo-yoing between Division Two and Division Three the last couple of years but there’s nothing for us to fear, it’s a game that we can definitely win if we put in the right performance.”

Down produced a season-best performance in their final league match with Monaghan and they’ll be coming into Saturday evening’s match with a bounce in their step and with that Down ‘swagger’ that they’re renowned for.

“It’s going to be important that we are on it from the very start and that we are well set up and well-structured because they have serious runners from deep and they will go for goals.

“Pat Havern, he’s definitely going to be one to watch, he’s very accurate and a great kicker from distance. He needs watched. Odhrán Murdock in midfield is a very powerful runner. Then you’ve got the Kilcoo contingent and Ceilum Doherty and (Eugene) Branagan – they have a lot of pace, as well as Miceal Rooney, Daniel Guinness and (Ryan) Magill.

“If you give them space they’re going to cut you open, so we need to make sure we dont give them too much space and are well set up defensively.”

But he’s confident they’re a match for them. They were two years ago when Fermanagh snatched a late goal in Ederney to take the league points.

“They’ll not fear us at all and after that Monaghan win they’ll be coming in with a bounce in their step but we finished the league strong enough too and we have confidence that if we put in a performance we can get the win.”