Nickey Rackard Cup round one

Fermanagh v Donegal

Sunday, Brewster Park, 2pm

By Mark McGoldrick

AS the Fermanagh players and management celebrated in Carrick-on-Shannon on Saturday evening, Joe Baldwin fulfilled the media requests and in doing so he paid tribute to the Erne hurlers after their hard-fought Division 3B final victory against Longford.

In his third term at the helm, Baldwin has been steadfast in his belief that on their day Fermanagh can play as good of hurling as any county team in Ireland.

Now, having secured promotion and a Division 3B title, off the back of last year’s Lory Meagher Cup win, his words are ringing true.

On Sunday, Fermanagh will be back in action, this time on the provincial stage as they kick off their Nickey Rackard Cup campaign with a home game against Donegal in Brewster Park.

Baldwin’s men will face another step up in class when they face the Tír Chonaill side who are fresh off the back of a strong Division 2B campaign where they finished second and narrowly missed out on a place in the league final after they fell to a vastly experienced Derry side.

With little over a week to recover between games, Baldwin admits the squad is “tested” but expects to have Danny Teague, Barney McAuley and new signing Brian Teehan available for selection, with John Duffy still a doubt.

He knows massive improvement is needed from his players if Fermanagh is to make their mark on the provincial stage.

“We were put to the pin of our collar and there was a wee spell in the game where we hit 1-4 or 1-5 without reply and we hit it by trying to make space in the inside forward line.

“When you have got forwards of the calibre of Luca (McCusker), Tom (Keenan) and Sean (Corrigan), it was just a matter of trying to get them on the ball but the half back line had to really work hard to do that.

“Conor (McShea) and Caolan (Duffy) in the midfield and the half back line put in big shifts, ‘Chipper’ (McCusker) dropped back and Ryan Bogue got on the ball.

“To be honest, we could have used it a wee bit better and we have got stuff to work on with heading into playing Donegal in the championship but at the end of the day, we are league champions and we are over the moon.”

Baldwin hopes that the Erne supporters will once again be out in force this weekend in Brewster Park for their championship opener.

“There was quite a substantial crowd here (Carrick-on-Shannon) from Fermanagh today, cheering us on and yourselves (the media) giving us the coverage that we rightly deserve.

“All credit goes to the players. We put in a lot of work in the backroom team but the players play on the field and they have really just done us proudy.

“We have done the double and we are going up.”

With a number of experienced players absent, Fermanagh’s young guns stepped up to the plate, and overcame a steely Longford challenge.

Baldwin was very pleased with how his players overcame the adversity.

“We have got a squad and everybody puts in the same work. It is all about application of the skills and trying to fit into the game plan. Everybody is clued into that and it just fell into place today.

“Ben (Corrigan) came on, Shea (Curran) got his goal today and justly so, the boys from Belleek, they have got a league medal for a new club, Ultan (O’Reilly) and OJ (Odhran Johnston) really performed well and I am just delighted for them.”