Odhran Johnston relishing derby tussle

By Pauric McGurn

DUAL star Odhran Johnston once again put in a sublime performance on Saturday as Fermanagh got their Lory Meagher campaign off to a winning start.

Johnston, who has been involved with Erne Gaels senior footballers for four years, has also played for Fermanagh minors and u-20 footballers.

The 21-year-old from Belleek, who is in his final year of a Business Studies degree at Ulster University, says playing both hurling and football is pretty easy.

“I really enjoy the dual role. The training seems to be going really well, although I haven’t actually got out yet to train on the field with Erne Gaels’ footballers.”

The versatile Johnston, who can perform in defence or attack, hit a point in Saturday’s victory over Leitrim and was pleased to start the campaign with a win.

“Yeah it was a really good win, we got the result and that’s the main thing. It’s a close-run group and every team is certainly capable of doing it on the day.

“We were looking to get off to a winning start after the disappointment of the Division 3B final result, of course there is room for improvement and that will be needed this Saturday.”

Fermanagh welcome Cavan to Brewster Park this Saturday and Johnston knows “it’s not going to be easy”.

“We know Cavan well and they have a great blend of youth coming through the team now which is clearly showing.

“We faced them in the McGurk Cup earlier on this year and they weren’t easy and the fact they beat Warwickshire shows you the severe test that we will come up against.”

Fermanagh were well tested on Saturday when they went down to 13 men and Johnston praised the character shown by the team.

“We had to dig in and thankfully we did that. Leitrim came back at us in the second half but we showed great resilience and the strength of our bench showed great character as well. For lads to come on and really carry the fight to Leitrim, that got us over the line.”