WE ALL know what ifs and buts are worth, but it is not inconceivable that but for a soft penalty against Fermanagh, Mayo’s season could have ended some weeks ago.
Instead, in the Qualifier clash between the counties on July 9, Aidan O’Shea went down under a mere touch, Cillian O’Connor roofed the spot-kick and Mayo saw the game out. That the Westerners then faced Kildare and Westmeath to set up a quarter-final showdown with Tyrone just reinforces the feeling that Fermanagh could easily have been meeting the Red Hands.
When we spoke, Fermanagh’s Paul McCusker was preparing to attend a training session with his club St Joseph’s, Ederney, and a lingering sense of grievance is understandably still there: “Our first half performance [against Mayo] was probably the best football we played all year,” said McCusker.
“Going in with a decent enough lead at half–time, we were looking to come out in the second half and push on to increase the gap. [The penalty] had a big bearing on the game, at the time I think we were a point up. It gave them a big boost and I suppose the home crowd got behind them and we just couldn’t reel them back in after that really.
“At that stage we were just always looking to keep our noses in front. If they were only getting a point and we were going up and maybe tagging on another one – you were keeping your nose in front but as soon as they got the penalty they went ahead then. It was a huge score and it probably gave them a lift and knocked the stuffing out of us a wee bit. We certainly would have felt that if we had beaten them, it would have been us going into an All-Ireland quarter-final.”
The latter comment is surely a measure of how far Fermanagh have come on under manager Pete McGrath - both in actual progress and in their expectations of themselves. McCusker acknowledged that improvement, but there is a clear sense from him that he feels there is much more to do and that he, for one, can’t wait to get at it again.
“I think over this last two years we’ve made significant progress – we’re competing with the bigger teams. We just need to improve in certain sectors to take that next step and start beating them.
“As players you want to progress a bit quicker than you are but I suppose from 2015 individually a few of our players really stepped it up this year and I think for next year – more of us have to do it,” he insisted.
"We have to look at whatever parts of our game we need to improve on and to ultimately help the team. I think last year - for some of us - our club season didn’t finish until December 12 so we hadn’t much of a break. But this year we will have a wee bit of a break and maybe work on things that we didn’t get a chance to last year, and hopefully we will be fit to push the whole thing on.”
The man doing the pushing will once again be McGrath and McCusker couldn’t be happier that the Rostrevor man is back at the helm: “I think continuity is very important,” he said.
“If a new manager had come in now - we could break whatever bit of momentum we’ve gained this past few years. It’s great news that he is staying on and hopefully the whole backroom team will be there and hopefully we won’t be losing too many players.”
