By Niall Gartland

FERMANAGH u-17 boss Aiden Gilroy is happy with his panel ahead of Wednesday evening’s Ulster Championship opener against Cavan.

Just a few short weeks ago, Fermanagh came agonisingly close to upsetting the odds against Monaghan in the Ulster Championship semi-final.

That was the 2020 team, but seven of those players, including Jamie McCaffrey, Louis Donnelly and Conaill Boyle, are still eligible for selection as the 2021 campaign gets underway.

Gilroy, who managed Derrylin to the Junior Championship final last year (a game which was postponed, and still is, as a result of Covid), is in his first foray into intercounty management and considers Fermanagh to have a strong team, so hopefully the results will follow.

“We’ve brought in seven lads from last year’s minor panel but obviously we’ve only had access to them for the last three weeks. It obviously isn’t ideal as you’re still tweaking your time and trying to find out lads’ best positions.

“They’re very good players though, they ran Monaghan close and if they’d been a bit more adventurous in the last five minutes, they’d possibly have won it. They also drew with Derry in a challenge match and they went on to win the All-Ireland.

“The younger lads have seen the standards set by the 2020 minors so they’re just trying to meet that. I’m happy with the panel in general, they’re a good bunch, they’re always there at training. It’s unfortunate we don’t have Lissan at the minute so we’re asking parents to ferry the lads around the county and in fairness they’ve done that.”

Gilroy was appointed to the post in February, and he obviously had to bide his time before training could begin in earnest. That’s made things more difficult than he’d like.

“There’s been a lot of waiting around, and another problem is that there was no u-16 development football last year. That hasn’t been great for their progress, and a further problem was that the 2020 minors were still busy so we didn’t get access to any of their players. It’s just the way things have worked out, but we’re getting there.”