Newtownbutler Manager Darren Chapman accepted that his side failed to do themselves justice as their Ulster Junior Club bid ended at the semi-final stage with a resounding defeat to Cavan champions Drumlane in Clones.

The First Fermanaghs had been competitive for the opening quarter, but Drumlane took control in the period before half time and then pushed on in the second half to run out convincing victors.

“I’m absolutely devastated,” said Chapman.

“ I’m devastated for the players, and I’m devastated for our supporters. As a bare minimum we wanted to do ourselves justice and we didn’t – we were terrible.

“It was a chastening experience for us to be on the receiving end of that, because I genuinely felt that we had a chance but the scoreline would suggest otherwise, and it is a very, very hard pill to swallow.”

And Chapman says the lesson to come out of the game for the First Fermanaghs is the need to be better conditioned to deal with physically strong teams.

“The biggest thing I’ve learnt from Sunday’s experience is the importance of conditioning to compete at a higher level, even at club level.

“We have significant work to do in that area to get our players in a position where they are physically capable of matching their opponents, as well as being able to match their footballing ability.

“We have a huge amount of work to do on our conditioning, and that’s not just at Senior level but at Underage too. We are producing lots of great young players but to compete with the likes of Enniskillen Gaels in future years we have got to get our conditioning right, because if we don’t, we are not going to compete,” he explained.

While Sunday was a tough loss to take for Newtownbutler, when the dust settles they can look back on a good season and one where there has been progression, according to Chapman.

“Looking back on the season, it has been one of a lot of positives in terms of where we were last year compared to where we are this year; we are moving forward, and that’s what’s important,” he added.

And having achieved their main goal of winning the Junior Championship, they can now look forward to competing at Intermediate level in 2023.

“That’s a positive – we are going to be competing at a higher level.

“That brings its own challenges but it is progress and for the club moving forward, no matter who is doing the job next year, it is going to be about competing at Intermediate level and staying at Intermediate level, and also trying to get promoted to Division One,” he said.