National Football League Division Two: Fermanagh v Armagh (tonight, Brewster Park, 7pm)
WITHOUT kicking a ball, the situation for both Fermanagh and Armagh became slightly more precarious last weekend.
While Strom Jorge wreaked havoc at Brewster Park, Clare and Kildare were both recording wins to move away from the Erne county at the bottom of the Division Two table. Meanwhile, Armagh were being bumped from the promotion spots by a resurgent Roscommon who have now put together three wins in succession following their round two reversal in Enniskillen.
Those have proven to be Fermanagh’s only points to date and when Ryan McMenamin compares notes with Armagh, he’ll quickly understand why.
Defensively the two have conceded almost identical tallies – Armagh letting in 4-46 to Fermanagh’s 4-45. It’s at the other end where the problems lie. The Orchard county have hit between 16 and 20 scores in three of their four games for an average of 17.75 points per game. Fermanagh, by contrast, are averaging just 12.25 points per game and have a real problem finding the net.
It would be easy to say ‘same old defensive Fermanagh’, however the eye test proves that they have been committing more to attack but have been wasting far too many chances.
Ultan Kelm, their one goalscorer in the League, has said that their conversion rate simply has to rise if they are to avoid the drop.
“This is really a must-win game and we have had three near misses as those two goals conceded in choppy conditions against Cavan were really crucial,” said Kelm, who found the net against Cavan.
“We have just come up short and I thought we were the better team and we had enough chances to win it.
“Near misses are no good, we need points on the board. It is the chances taken that separate the top teams from the rest.
“We need to make that next step and we are confident that we can do it against Armagh.”
That 2-11 to 1-11 loss to Cavan was the first time Fermanagh had lost a League match at home since going down to Derry by a point in April 2017.
Armagh, at their best, would likely make it back-to-back losses at Brewster, but unfortunately for them their best only seems to appear in patches rather than for a full 70 minutes.
That was never more evident than in their last outing against Westmeath. Everything they tried in the first half seemed to come off and an eight-point lead at half-time looked more than enough to secure a crucial two points.
Then came the triple whammy of three Westmeath goals in 12 minutes, and it took a late Jamie Clarke goal to secure a point for Kieran McGeeney’s side.
Clarke’s intervention could prove crucial in what is an incredibly congested division. Armagh will also be hoping that their defensive side of the game can be tidied up with Jemar Hall and Brendan Donaghy both possibly coming back into contention for tonight’s game.
What’s clear though is that this is a massive fixture for both sides. Armagh’s attacking aces should see them just about shade it.
