Pete McGrath, Fermanagh Manager, takes a seat prior to the throw-in.
Fermanagh manager Pete McGrath tried to take the positives from Sunday’s defeat to Antrim.
The Down man emphasised the importance of the team sticking together ahead of the All Ireland qualifiers and trying to get a win under their belts.
“We will learn a lot from that game and look forward in a positive frame of mind. It is essential that this squad of players gets as much out of this Championship season as it possibly can. If that means winning one, two, three games in the qualifiers, that’s invaluable for team progression.
“We have to look at it in that way. We have to just try and be more consistent over the 70 minutes.”
McGrath though did not try and escape the fact that his side were extremely poor for long periods of the game.
“What I have been emphasising to the players, and this was emphasised on Friday night, and this morning in the hotel; in Championship football, every moment of the game is important. Every moment at this level of football, it is about a high level of concentration, it is about a very narrow focus, being vigilent, aware, up and running at all times.
Today, particularly in the ten, fifteen minutes, we were sluggish, we were cumbersome, making very elementary errors in terms of hand-passing, handling, scoring opportunities missed and all of this combined to give Antrim a serious foothold in the game.”
Fermanagh were 12 points down with just seven minutes left of the first half but rattled off 1-04 without reply to give them some hope for the second half.
“I give my team credit, because with fifteen minutes to go to half-time we were twelve points behind. And in the dying seconds of the game, we could have won it.
“I would give my panel of players great credit. We made a lot of mistakes, Antrim made a lot of mistakes. But there were chunks of the game where they had control, they made it count and I give them credit for that.” McGrath explained after the game.
Antrim had the Fermanagh defence ran ragged in the first half and there were times that there was oceans of space in front of a beleaguered Erne full back line.
“Yes, well I accept that. Antrim had a clever game-plan and created space in front of our full-back line and at half-time we took remedial action,” McGrath stated before adding that Antrim were on top in too many areas of the field.
“I think in the first twenty minutes particularly, I think Antrim took the game to us in a very energetic and enthusiastic way.
“I think over the field, the one-to-ones were being won by Antrim. Certainly, their number six was a problem, we dealt with that at half-time, Tommy McElroy went on him and that stymied his contribution.
“We came with a late surge in the first half, I thought we were still in a good place at half-time, the players believed that.
“Probably the goal that Antrim got at the start of the second half gave them that cushion. Thereafter we were just trying to nibble into that lead. At least we didn’t let them extend it too much and that left us in a position for our late surge in the last eight or nine minutes and we could have snatched the game.”
The Fermanagh boss also spoke of the loss of key personnel and was critical of the referee and his lack of action when Johnny Woods was challenged by the Antrim keeper.
“The loss of Tomás Corrigan, the loss of John Woods, I think these were capital blows and how John Woods gets a suspected broken jaw and the referee is standing three or four metres from it, doesn’t do a thing? I am a bit baffled by that to be honest. He will be out for the rest of season.”