Maurice McLaughlin was delighted with the performance of his U20 side in Brewster Park last Friday evening, but even though they thoroughly deserved their nine-point victory, he knows there are still aspects that can be improved and will need to be improved on for the challenge of Down.

From the outset, Fermanagh dominated proceedings against Antrim, with their pace causing problems against an Antrim side that left an ocean of space in their defence early on – a decision they paid dearly for.

Dominated

Giving his thoughts on the performance from his side following the game, McLaughlin said: “[I] would have to be delighted with a lot of that performance and when you put up a score like that, 2-13 in the end up.

“I thought we dominated the game. Wee bit disappointed at half time we weren’t more ahead. [Thinking about] our decision-making in the first half when we got into those positions, I might be nitpicking, but really, at halftime we weren’t pleased.

“At half time we spoke about it, we regrouped, reset at half time, and we set a target to be further ahead at the water break, and you know obviously we got the penalty and the game was effectively over after that.”

A start that saw them race into a 1-02 to no-score lead put Fermanagh in control, and Antrim were never able to cut the gap to anything close than two points.

The space afforded to Fermanagh in the opening exchanges was something that surprised McLaughlin, as they made full use of it.

Fermanagh’s first goal from Captain Josh Largo-Elis was a prime example of the space left between the midfield and Antrim’s full backline.

“I was kind of surprised. They put a high press on us. We have quality players back there, and we were able to get that ball out fairly quickly.

“You know, you give Josh Largo-Elis, Justy McDade, give them that green grass and they are going to go, and we were delighted to see that bit of space, and in fairness, the lads capitalised on it in the first 5-10 minutes.”

At the other end, space was at a premium for Antrim, with Sean McNally not threatened in the Fermanagh goal. It was rare that an Antrim player got a shot away without any pressure being applied.

Lessons learned

The Fermanagh boss talked about the lessons learned in a recent challenge match: “We had a challenge match against Derry here a few weeks ago.

“We looked at a few things in it and that was the one thing we decided we had to improve on. We couldn’t let runners come through the middle. We were very effective defensively.”

The next challenge for this Fermanagh side is Down on Friday night in the Athletic Grounds in Armagh, and McLaughlin knows his players will need to step their performance up again against a side that were impressive 14-point winners over Cavan.

“Down always come with quality underage teams. They have their academies up there with their schools, Abbey CBS, St. Colman’s.

“We played them two years ago in the Minors; [they were] a very good team.

“Down will be quality and we are going to have to up it another notch if we are going to progress to an Ulster final.

“I said earlier in the week if we outworked them [Antrim] we had the talent, and the talent won’t be enough for us to progress to an Ulster final

“We really have to go next Friday night and outwork Down – there’s no doubt about that,” added McLaughlin.