Fermanagh can reflect on a useful McKenna cup campaign with three good group wins followed by a battling defeat to Tyrone.

That’s history now though, and Rory Gallagher will be eager to hit the ground running with Wexford the guests at Brewster Park this Sunday. The men from the sunny southeast might be coming up the road on the back of a surprise O’Byrne Cup victory over the Dubs, but the Erne fans flocking to Enniskillen will be anticipating full points for the hosts come the final whistle.

The manager is similarly bullish about the opener. He has it marked down as a crucial game and expects his players to step up to the mark.

“You don’t go in to come last,” said Rory Gallagher. “A long time ago Eddie O’Sullivan said you can’t win the Six Nations or the Grand Slam unless you win the first game, that’s vanishing point. We just focus on the first game against Wexford. I don’t think anyone can say Fermanagh are at a level where we can take anyone for granted. We would like to think we’ll be competitive with anybody and we’re confident that we will.

“We feel we have to set a standard which we feel is acceptable. Every day you have to go out and prove that you’re good enough. At this point in time we’re only good enough for division 3 and that’s fair enough. We have go out every Sunday, starting this Sunday, and prove that we good enough to be at the upper end of it and challenging to get out of it.”

In recent years Fermanagh have had something of an Indian sign over Wexford. They beat the Yellabellies in the 2016 qualifiers 0-19 to 1-11 and also beat them 1-12 to 0-7 in the 2015 league, both those meetings in Wexford Park.