By Niall Gartland

FERMANAGH goalkeeper Sean McNally believes his team are in a good place heading into their latest championship campaign.

They host Conor Laverty’s Down on Saturday, April 13, and while they’ll carry the underdogs tag as per usual, it’s water off a ducks back at this stage.

The Erne men came close to achieving promotion from Division Three, results elsewhere on the final day meaning they narrowly missed out, but McNally and his teammates are still taking the positives with the championship just around the corner.

McNally said: “I didn’t actually know until after the game that we were in a position at half-time to go up. I suppose we have regrets from some of our earlier games – our defeat to Clare was definitely a missed opportunity – but I thought we did well when all is said and done. I think we’re playing well heading into the championship so we’re really looking forward to the Down game.”

McNally certainly had a strong campaign, illustrated by a few particularly special moments, none more so than his late equalising point against Sligo in round five. That was before the FRC put the clampers on goalkeepers somewhat with a tweaking of the 3v3 rule, but he still ventures out the pitch when the moment presents itself.

The 24-year-old, who is already in his sixth year on the senior inter-county panel, said: “I play outfield with the club (Teemore) and Kieran Donnelly said we could exploit the new rules, so I tried to come out as much as possible. The rules got changed, so I’m not coming out as much as I was. It’s probably a pity from a goalkeeping perspective though I can understand why the change was made.”

McNally knows it will take a fine performance to overcome a Down team who, while relegated from Division Two, have been playing well in their own right.

“They’re going well, they have a lot of good runners from deep, so we’ll have to do our homework. It’ll be a tough game but these are the days we look forward to.”

The Erne County have lost a lot of experienced personnel in recent years but they can still call upon quite a number of players who starred the last time they reached an Ulster final, back in 2018.

“It’s a young squad but there’s still a lot of experience there – Decky (McCusker), Johnny Cassidy, the two Cullens (Lee and Che). There’s a good mix of youth and experience and training’s been really good so we’re hopeful about the months ahead.”