Devenish joint Manager Marty O’Brien is looking for his side to impose themselves on the contest from the start when they take on Castlerahan in the Ulster Club Intermediate Championship in Ederney on Saturday.

That is something that the Garrison outfit did throughout their run to the Fermanagh title and O’Brien feels it is vital if they are to give themselves a chance of progressing in the competition.

“I think if we can impose ourselves in the game early on, like we have been doing throughout the Championship, that will be a big thing for us,” said O’Brien.

“There may be a wee bit of the unknown with not knowing the players, compared to meeting a team in Fermanagh where you know what to expect, but I would be hoping that when we hit the ground on Saturday afternoon, that we will be letting Castlerahan know what we are about, and if we can kick on from that, that would be my hope.

“We don’t want to hold anything back from the start – we just want to get at it and get stuck in.”

Devenish took a week’s break after securing the Fermanagh title but O’Brien feels that preparations for Ulster have gone well since they returned to the training pitch.

“We took the week out of it [after winning]; we just trained the once on the Friday night after the final, so we eased ourselves back into it, but we have been pretty focused over the last two weeks.

“We have tried to put the win behind us and move on to try and take a crack at this Castlerahan team, and preparations have been going pretty well,” he said.

Devenish had produced some fine football on their way to winning the championship, and O’Brien is hoping that they can continue that on Saturday.

“We have been playing with good confidence throughout the championship, and hopefully now the break hasn’t taken away from that and we can pick up where we left off, because we had been playing well.”

He acknowledges though that going into the provincial competition will be a step up for the players.

“You would think this will be a big step-up for us but I hope we are up for the challenge and give as good an account of ourselves as we possibly can, and if we do that we can be happy enough.

“If we show up and perform and we are beaten by a better team on the day, then that’s fair enough, but I would be hoping that we will bring a big performance to Ederney on Saturday,” he added.

And he knows that they face a stern examination against a side that not long ago had won back-to-back Senior titles in Cavan.

“They were a very strong team a couple of years ago; they had a couple of Senior championships under their belt, and looking through their team, there are still a few of them lads knocking about.

“We can see that there is serious quality there, and then to bounce back after relegation and to win the Intermediate Championship straight away in Cavan is impressive.

We will have to be at our best, I would think, to get the measure of them on Saturday afternoon,” he said.

He does though believe that playing in Ulster is something that the players should look forward to.

“It is new for all of the lads – it is not something that we have any experience with, and that’s good.

“At the same time, it is a game of football and we can just approach it as such.

“It is of massive importance, and the first game is key because if you win it anything can happen after that – but this is a very experienced team that we are going to be facing, with a lot of players who have played in the senior Ulster Club in the past but it is something for the lads to relish,” said O’Brien.