By Pauric McGurn

HAVING just seen his Fermanagh side start their Nickey Rackard cup campaign with a one-point defeat to Armagh, Fermanagh manager Joe Baldwin was quite rightly hugely disappointed as they prepare to bounce back against Louth on Sunday.

The Erne men could not have asked for a worse possible start when before even the throw-in they lost three key players with Danann McKeogh, Sean Corrigan and Daniel Teague ruled out late with injuries.

“They were a huge loss, all three of them, the three lads would have started for absolutely sure,” acknowledged Baldwin.

“They are three classy forwards and to lose a game by just one point, I know for sure if any one of them had have started we would have won the game.”

The game ebbed and flowed throughout the first half until Armagh took real control late on and led 0-10 to 0-6 at the interval. The away side then had Peter McKeaney sent off but just four minutes later a Connor Renaghan goal moved Karl McKeegan’s side ahead, 1-11 to 0-9.

Fermanagh did rally but were unable to force a draw, something that hurt Baldwin.

“We certainly had chances late on to get a draw but throughout the game we had some really poor decision making, we were giving the ball away cheaply and taking some shots from areas that players are not known to aim from,” he said.

“When on the ball we need to be more sure of what we are doing and we had enough chances to at least take something from that game. Of course Armagh had spells of play and they had a free taker who missed absolutely nothing.”

Fermanagh must now get ready for a testing encounter with Louth, a team that Baldwin has seen plenty of in Division Four this year, including in a narrow league final loss.

“We are bitterly disappointed, but we have to shake that off immediately and that’s my job to get the lads now concentrating on Louth,” he added.

“The beauty of this competition is that games come so quickly at you, we will buckle ourselves down again for training on Tuesday evening and go again.

“We know Louth inside out and they know us inside out so it’s certainly all on the day. There is never much between us and I have to think of something different to freshen it up more as we created chances today but didn’t take enough of them and at this level you are punished.”