Fermanagh’s all-action half forward Aidan Breen continued his run of scoring in every game so far this season with a timely point to secure victory for the hosts on Sunday.

The Tempo ace was happy with the final score board, but recognises there’s room for improvement ahead of next week’s visit by Offaly.
“It reminded me a lot of the Queen’s game,” said Breen. “We were a bit lethargic at times. We got off to a great start and then we took our foot off the gas. Only for the lucky goals in might have been different at half-time. They were lucky goals, but at the same time Seamie stood in around the square. For the third one I got the ball out about midfield and Eoin Donnelly was beside me and he ended up on the full forward line. You have to be there to make goals happen. You need that unselfish work. I don’t think our work rate can be faulted, but we’re not making life easy for ourselves.”
Breen admitted the loss of Ryan Jones to a straight red card knocked Fermanagh out of their stride somewhat. Dealing with those sorts of set backs better is something he wants to see the side add to their mental armoury.
“Jonesy going off was a big blow, it definitely was. But it’s the league, injuries, black cards, red cards, they’re going to happen and you “have to react to them. We didn’t react the way we should have, but we’ll learn from it.
We came out of today with two points on the board and that was the objective, a performance would have been a bonus, but if we are to get to where we want to be the performance will definitely have to be lifted.”
Fermanagh weren’t helped by a heavy pitch which made the going difficult for all concerned.
“It does take it out of you, there’s no point saying it doesn’t,” said Breen. “But we made things harder for ourselves. It would be so much easier if we were coming up that pitch and we were hitting each other in the chest with fist passes. We were throwing it at each others ankles and giving the man chance to get in. It’s bad enough running up and down that pitch without some Wexford man taking the head of you when you’re trying to get down for a ball.”
One plus was the goal tally, three in a single game, a stark contrast from only managing to register four in the whole duration of last year. Breen says it’s good to get that particular monkey off the back.
“The more that monkey is on your back about goals the more it plays on your mind and your more likely not to score them. It’s something we’ve worked on since Rory’s come in, but we’d be disappointed to have conceded two goals today.”
Attention turns now to Offaly and Breen is expecting another tough Leinster test.
“We know what we have in store. We’ve played Tyrone and Wexford here on heavy ground so that could be an advantage for us. They’re going to be coming up the road needing points and they are a wounded animal. A wounded animal is always dangerous. Offaly are big physical time. I remember playing them in the league three or four years ago and we played them last year in a challenge. They have big physical players and if you have those sorts of players in conditions like that with sloppy balls being played, they’ll make it difficult for you. They’ll be pumping balls in and they could go anywhere.
“They have this young [Cian] Johnston boy at corner forward and they’re raving about him, so he will be handy enough too. I think it’s going to be a similar test to the Wexford game.”