DOWN may be the reigning Ulster champions - but Fermanagh U20s are coming to Pairc Esler tomorrow night to win, insists boss Maurice McLaughlin.
That’s the firm message coming from the Donegal native, whose side ran the Mournemen – managed by former Down players Conor Laverty and Marty Clarke - to five points in last year’s Ulster semi-final.
Both counties have few changes since then, but McLaughlin has great belief in a side that contains quite a few of the U17 side who defeated Down in 2020 and narrowly lost out to Monaghan in extra-time last March in a delayed fixture.
“Last year we came up against a physically powerful, well developed and well coached Down side who got a real foothold in the game for the first 15 to 20 minutes,” he said.
“They were seven points up at half-time and we came back and held them scoreless for 22 minutes but just could not break them down.
“They were a very good team and were perhaps a bit unlucky not to go all the way to the All-Ireland last year as Roscommon caught them at the end.”
Of course, tomorrow night’s clash is between two different teams, although Fermanagh still have a few survivors from last year.
McLaughlin has up to 10 players from the 2021 squad including Aaron Jones, Ryan McDonnell, Conor Burns, Ryan McNally, Conor Murphy, Micheal Flanagan and Oisin Farry.
He will be hoping they can take the lead, supplemented by the impressive U20 team that has the likes of the gifted Fionan O’Brien, Justy McDade, Ultan O’Reilly, Diarmuid King (son of Barry and grandson of the great ex-Tyrone star Pat King) and Donal McCaffrey.
All of his squad will be underage again next year, but they are a talented bunch.
“This is what we train for - for the big nights and the big grounds,” said McLaughlin.
“Down are Down, they are the defending Ulster champions even though it is another year and they have one of the top footballing brains in the country in Conor Laverty.
“And they always have great tradition and pride in the jersey. We are under no illusions about the task ahead of us. Having said that, we are not going up there to make up the numbers, we are going there to win”.
Fermanagh recently played the U20 Development League for the Philly McGuinness Cup, which was “very beneficial”.
“In the game against Sligo we under-performed in our first competitive game out. We beat Leitrim and we only went down by two points to Longford in a very competitive game.
“It gave us a chance to look at a lot of players. We carried a big squad of up to 37 players with a view to developing and creating that player pathway, so there will be quite a good few of this squad eligible again next year.
“Last year we were very unlucky to lose out to Monaghan, quite a lot of those lads are still around, and this is a very talented group of players. They complement that by being a very dedicated and hard-working group.”
