Donnelly: Our squad depth has improved

By Katrina Brennan

FOUR wins, two defeats and one draw: that’s how Fermanagh fared in a difficult division and realistically, after the opening day hammering away to Kildare, staying in Division Three looked tricky enough.

However, Kieran Donnelly’s men grew in stature and held on for a one-point win against Antrim in Ederney the second day out. A two-point defeat in round three to Clare is one Donnelly pinpoints as the main “regret” though.

A superb one-point win against Offaly in Ederney followed and had all in the Erne County looking up rather than down as fears of relegation lessened, but there was still work to be done.

Sligo came to town and Fermanagh made a ‘Lazarus-like’ comeback to take a point home. With Leitrim infamously failing to field, Fermanagh got the two points on offer and the Erne men capped off the campaign with a win on home turf, coming from five points down to win by two, against Justin McNulty’s Laois. It’s been a testing campaign for manager Donnelly who has been juggling injuries over the last couple of months.

“My real focus in the league was to try and develop a style of play and character among the squad and because we had so many injuries we had to develop a depth of squad and I think we did that.

“To come away with nine points in a league where we had to balance injuries throughout it and a lot of good performances, bar the Kildare game, where we came away from it thinking we didn’t turn up, that has been a positive.”

Reflecting on the ‘what might have been’, Donnelly said.

“You’ll always have regrets; the Clare game was the one because I thought we played so well against Clare. But, it’s about momentum and two-pointers, they hit a couple against the run of play.

“I thought we played some of our best periods of football against Clare but we just didn’t get the rub of the green but that’s just the way the league transpires.”

A couple of notable absentees on Sunday were Ronan McCaffrey and Ultán Kelm. McCaffrey rolled his ankle during a challenge game with Monaghan but the manager believes he’ll be okay for the Ulster Championship quarter-final with Down in just over three weeks’ time.

Kelm poses a different quandary though. After all the signs pointing in the right direction with Kelm back on the grass training following his ongoing hip injury, the Belleek man suffered another setback explained Donnelly.

“We’re just hoping he can get a bit of a break with it. He’s mad keen to get back and help the squad but he just had a slight setback on Thursday night.”