Football

Erne star Owens urges Canavan to stay

FERMANAGH ace Barry Owens yesterday urged Peter Canavan (right) to stay on as manager - but remained non-committal on his own future with the Ernemen.

In the immediate aftermath of Fermanagh's All-Ireland Qualifier defeat to Cavan, Canavan refused to be drawn on his future.

However, it appears Tyrone's double All-Ireland winner has the full backing of the Fermanagh squad to remain for a third year.

"I'd definitely want Peter to stay on," said Owens.

"We've definitely improved over the last couple of years. Our League performances improved and I thought our Championship performances have been better. The second half in the second game against Cavan was disappointing.

"The sending-off [of Sean Quigley] disrupted us and it was always going to be difficult to play against Cavan with 14 men."

The 2004 Allstar noted the improvements made in Cavan this summer with the Breffnimen knocking them out of both the provincial and All-Ireland series this year. "If you keep changing managers every couple of years you're going no-where," said Owens.

"You look at the amount of managers Cavan had over the last 10 years and where it got them. They've kept Terry Hyland on board. He's come through the U21s and you see their work is paying off."

In his first year in charge Canavan guided Fermanagh out of Division Four and narrowly missed out this year on back-to-back promotions.

Cavan edged out the Ernemen in the Ulster SFC quarter-finals before they upset the odds by beating Westmeath in a dramatic Quaifier win in Mullingar.

However, Cavan came back to haunt Canavan's men the next day.

Asked to pinpoint Canavan's managerial skills, Owens said:

"Peter has the experience of the big days which helped us. And some younger players are coming through, the likes of Declan McCusker..."

On his own inter-county future, the 31-year-old Teemore clubman said: "I haven't made my mind up yet. It just depends on how the body feels. That's the biggest thing.

'A few of us older lads have had a lot of injuries over the years which probably hasn't helped."