Down will enter Brewster Park to take on Fermanagh as hot favourites to progress in this Ulster Minor Round Qualifier.
In their opening round clash a late Monaghan goal swung the tie in the favour of the Farney men but Down showed enough quality on the day to indicate that there is plenty of talent within the squad.
Fermanagh went down to Cavan at Breffni Park in round one and although the game was evenly balanced at the break it was to be two goals from Cavan in the second half that was to prove their undoing.
Despite the defeat Erne boss, Maurice McLaughlin, took plenty of positives from aspects of the performance:
“I felt that we were right in the game at half time. The goals rocked us no doubt, but the fellas rallied very well in fairness to them and there was a lot of good play at times.”
McLaughlin will be able to call on the services of Micheal Glynn for the clash with the Mourne men. Glynn didn’t play against Cavan but the recent Hogan Cup winner with St Michael’s is a player that will bring more cut and thrust to the Fermanagh attack and McLaughlin reports that training has been going well:
“The guys have bee great all year. Everything that has been asked of them they have done and they are very committed and work very hard. We have picked ourselves up since the Cavan game and I have to say that training has been very good and we are looking to produce a performance in Brewster Park.”
To do that the young Erne men will have stop Down from scoring goals.
It was their Achilles heel against Cavan.
“I think if we have to improve on one thing it would be our concentration for the entire 60 minutes. Our concentration dropped and Cavan punished us. But it is a learning curve for these players and that was a lesson learned the last day,” McLaughlin explained.
Turning to the opposition the former Erne Gaels manager knows that they will represent a tough obstacle to clear:
“Down are Down really. The aristocrats of Ulster football and they will be very strong. They have some excellent players with young Crimmens and McGovern two fine footballers and they are backed by a number of strong school teams so we know that this is our stiffest test to date.”
Despite St Michael’s winning the Hogan Cup this Fermanagh minor squad do not have a huge amount of that team available to them.
Josh Horan at full back was brilliant in that Hogan Cup run and McLaughlin will look to him to lead the defence tonight at Brewster Park. Fergal Quinn was in goals against Cavan although he has spent most of his career out the field. Comfortable on the ball it is further evidence of the evolution of goalkeeping in the modern game.
For Down this is their second successive away game having come up short in Clones against Monaghan. On that day they had worked their way into a four-point lead with Adam Crimmins and John McGovern both in fine form in their attack with Ryan Magill was a forceful runner from the half back line.
James McCartan will be looking for his side to play right to the finish tonight. Monaghan outscored Down 1-05 to 0-01 in the final 10 minutes to secure the win with the Down camp disappointed they were not able to close the game out from a commanding position.
They look the better all round team and deserve their favourites tag but Fermanagh with Glynn in the starting line up are expected to be a much better team.
