You could hear it in Pete McGrath’s voice. After the defeat to St Mary’s there was a trace of irritation as he spoke to the press post match but on Monday, the day after defeat at the hands of Derry, his tone was much more upbeat.
His side may be zero wins from two outings in the McKenna Cup this season but at Owenbeg on Sunday the two time All Ireland winning manager saw plenty of promise in his sides performance;
“The workrate and honesty that the players displayed was faultless and I said to them after the game that is they can maintain that in every game that it will be a terrific base to build on.”
Conditions against Derry were awful. Driving rain, freezing cold and an almost unplayable breeze left it very difficult for both sides and in that context McGrath was most pleased with how his side applied themselves;
“Given the conditions I thought that the tackling, work-rate and effort put in by the players was excellent and we played with a much greater intensity than we were able to manage against St Mary’s so that was pleasing.”
With 17 minutes to go Fermanagh were leading by a point although Derry did have the aid of the strong breeze at that stage but McGrath feels that this was still a game that Fermanagh could have won;
“Derry deserved the win but that is not to say that we did not have chances and possession and we could have won. We had a lot of the ball in the last ten minutes but found it difficult to produce scores and the conditions had a lot to do with that.”
Tonight McGrath and his Fermanagh charges take on Monaghan in the last McKenna Cup game and the manager will be keen that the intensity remains while he will also want to get a final look at certain players;
“We still have one or two players that we want to see more of but against Monaghan I would like to think that we can get a team on the pitch that can be very competitive and I want to see the same level of work rate maintained,” the Down man explained.
It has been a frustrating start to his Erne managerial stint for McGrath. Between retirements, injuries, players working abroad and games being postponed things have been a little fractured. On Sunday McGrath was able to welcome back his captain Eoin Donnelly and his presence around the middle certainly boosted the team;
“Eoin being back was a big help. He has had no contact in training for over a month and he was certainly a little rusty but he helped a lot. We are beginning to get more players back and things are coming together,” the Fermanagh boss said before continuing to talk about the forthcoming league campaign;
“I can certainly see improvement. At the minute we are working on game plans both when we have the ball and when we do not but these are still only in broad terms and we will have to fine tune these over the coming weeks and months but I think we will be able to put a team on the field who will compete very strongly in division three.”