Baldwin: Erne hurlers are a work in progress

FERMANAGH hurling manager Joe Baldwin wasn’t making excuses for Saturday afternoon’s defeat away to Louth but he did point to the availability of players as being a factor in the game as they prepare for Sunday’s visit of Longford.

Caolan Duffy and Thomas Burns were unable to travel from England, Francie McBrien was called into work for NIE in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn and Daniel Teague had a car accident the morning of the game which ruled him out.

“We’re possibly the smallest county in Ireland in terms of our pick and losing Caolan Duffy and Thomas Burns yesterday (Friday), the two boys were stuck in London on flights and Francie (McBrien) and Danny (Teague) as well, and we wish him (Danny) well, but look, we could make a million excuses.

“We had enough ball in the first half to make the game a lot more competitive than what it was.

“To paint a positive picture on it, there’s probably only five of the Lory Meagher winning cup team there. There’s eight or nine boys to come back into the squad.

“From what I saw today, from the younger boys it’s a work in progress but I’m very disappointed with the result.”

The loss of two key players, Dannan McKeogh, pictured below, to a hamstring injury in the 18th minute and JP McGarry early in the second half as a result of a knock to the head was a real setback to Fermanagh in their attempt to pull away from Louth, after edging three ahead at the break.

“We were absolutely stretched here today” acknowledged Baldwin afterwards, against a physically strong Louth outfit.

“They’ve got eight or nine men there six foot plus where we don’t quite have that. But, after 30- 35 minutes, Louth went in there definitely worried. It shows you what we can do. We just didn’t have the strength in depth in terms of the panel today. We brought two boys on for their debut, two boys 19 years of age – Oisin Farry and Seamus Cleary, they play hurling for their club in Lisbellaw.

“(There are) positives to take from it but a lot of work to go. We were back slightly later than I would’ve liked to have been so we’ve got work over the next couple of months to try and get ready for championship.”