By Katrina Brennan

KIERAN Donnelly was far from happy with what he got from his team on Sunday afternoon against underdogs Carlow, and it certainly wasn’t what he predicted off the back of one of their best performances during his tenure against Down on their previous day out.

The Ernesiders slumped to a surprise 3-18 to 2-18 defeat at Brewster Park, and while the scoreline was close, Carlow were full value for their win in the first round of the Tailteann Cup.

A much-improved performance will be expected and demanded when they travel to face Longford this Sunday, and manager Kieran Donnelly didn’t disguise his frustration at their underpar showing against Carlow.

“It wasn’t the Fermanagh team that I expected, the way we played all league and the performance against Down. It was nowhere near it,” he said.

“We had a good conversation (post-match). We had to discuss it, but we’re very clear it’s a group game—you have two more games. You just have to go after it and be really focused this week because that level wasn’t acceptable to us.”

After playing Cavan in a challenge match a couple of weekends ago, the bounce-back from their Ulster quarter-final defeat looked like it was going in the right direction. But Fermanagh never really got going on Sunday:

“We just weren’t on it from the first 10 minutes it felt. They started really well, any time they were attacking it felt like they were getting their shot away,” said the Erne boss.

“There’s no doubt, we didn’t bring the same level of intensity and aggression to the tackle.”

And Donnelly admitted he hadn’t anticipated such a below par performance, even after the galling Down defeat.

“I saw no signs of it until we were 10 minutes into the game and we just didn’t get to the pace of it and when they went at us they looked like they were going to score but we’re going to have to tighten that up individually and collectively.

“We didn’t defend collectively, we took our eye off the ball that way, and we left their key men in too many one v ones.

“We left some very poor scores behind us that we needed to be taking, especially when we weren’t playing overly well.”

The result means Sunday’s meeting with Longford is a must-win. The Leinster side lost their first group game 2-24 to 1-18 at the weekend in Wexford.

“Longford has always been tough for us,” said Donnelly.

“They’ll be really looking to double down too, the fact they lost their first game. You talk about the ‘edge’, that’s one thing you have to bring is an ‘edge’ and we didn’t have that ‘edge’ today. So it’s a real championship game – we have to win it – and hopefully the boys respond to it.”

Johnny Cassidy and Paul Breen missed Sunday’s game, Breen rolled his ankle against Down and Cassidy picked up a hip/groin injury. They’ll assess the Cassidy injury this week and in the wake of the Carlow loss he was unsure as to whether Jonny will play a part against Longford this weekend.

While Ultán Kelm looks like his hip injury has ruled him out of inter-county football this season, with Donnelly saying;

“He can’t shake it. He probably gets annoyed talking about it himself. We just can’t get him back on the pitch but hopefully long term he might get a run at it, but it’s not looking good for him at the minute.”

Pull quote

“There’s no doubt, we didn’t bring the same level of intensity and aggression to the tackle.”