Player development key for Tempo joint-manager

TEMPO have enjoyed a productive league campaign to date, but joint-manager Ryan Cassidy says the competitive nature of Division Two football in Fermanagh means that they’ll take it one step at a time.

The Maguires sit second in the table, only a fraction behind leaders Irvinestown with four rounds remaining, and there is an automatic promotion spot up for grabs for whoever finishes top of the pile.

Managing the team this year is former Fermanagh footballer Ryan Keenan, a native of the club who played until as recently as last year, and his friend and Errigal Ciaran clubman Cassidy.

Speaking earlier this week, Tyrone man Cassidy says he’s been impressed by the quality on offer in second-tier football in Fermanagh.

“We’ve had a decent start to the year. The Club Players Competition was good to us, we were happy enough with what we got out of it, and we’re now in the early stages of the league proper. It’s gone well, we’ve enjoyed the games that we’ve had to date.

“We’ve already played Lisnaskea and Irvinestown, they’re good strong teams, it’s very competitive on that front in Fermanagh and that seems to have been the case for a while now.

“We’ve plenty of good young lads so it’s great that they’re getting exposed to a high level of football.”

Tempo have welcomed back county duo Aidan Breen and Tiarnan Bogue in recent weeks, while they can still call upon the vastly experienced Niall McElroy, who managed Fermanagh minors for the last two years.

“Niall’s still playing for us, he was over the Fermanagh minors at the start of the year but he’s fully on board with us now, and it’s great to have Aidan and Tiarnan back as well.

“They’re great personalities to have around the dressing room and their experience is a great help to the young lads.”

Tempo will also harbour ambitions of having a real crack at the Intermediate Championship later in the season, but Cassidy says there’s no use getting ahead of themselves.

“I think the plan really is to try to make the team as good as it can possibly be and see where that takes us.

“I don’t think anyone at the start of the year would have had us down as favourites for league or championship but we’re a good young team and we have plenty of lads who are eager to improve and hopefully we can bring them on.”