Teemore Shamrocks is not a club you would immediately associate with the Intermediate Championship in Fermanagh.

The most successful club in the Fermanagh Senior Championship, they were relegated last year and they are now looking to plot a course back to the top tier.

At the core of that challenge will be Eoin McManus and he knows himself he will have to be one of those spearheading the challenge.

"I've probably had a good year, probably the best year I've had in a few years.

"I need to be a leader for Teemore. There are younger lads there but I need to be leading it. I am one of the senior players now I need to be leading the thing more than I have been. I need to be leading by example."

The versatile player admits the club had been living on the edge in the Senior Championship in recent years, but it is the place they want and "need" to be.

"The last few years we have been pushing our luck in the Senior Championship. We were only surviving in it nearly," said McManus.

"In fairness, I always think we are fit for the Senior Championship. Any game you go into in a championship game you feel you have a chance of winning.

"So we think we have a chance of winning every game in the Intermediate Championship.

"When you are playing for Teemore, all you want to do is win Senior Championships. It's all you hear about; the older people in Teemore talking about senior Championships. We as a club need to be in the Senior Championship."

With promotion back to Division One missed for another season, for McManus and the Teemore squad, the Intermediate Championship is the final chance for silverware.

They have been working hard since the end of the league under Tony Collins.

"Coming out of the league we were disappointed we didn’t get promotion. We probably thought we would have got promoted but boys heading away didn’t help matters.

"Thankfully the boys are back and training has been a lot better and hopefully we will go better in the championship.

"Tony is gunning to win that's why he probably came to Teemore.

"He saw an opportunity to get us out of Division Two, that hasn’t happened between one thing and another.

"Tony is a winner and Tony wants to win an Intermediate and that’s what we want to do."

Teemore are in a group alongside Derrylin, St. Pat's, Donagh and Maguiresbridge.

And McManus feels the teams who played in Division One this year will be looked at as challengers for the intermediate crown.

"Probably your Division One teams - Derrylin and Belcoo are going to be the big ones.

"We have Derrylin in the second game and Donagh in the first match.

"Those two teams are going to fancy their chances. We'll need to be playing out of our skins against those teams because they have been playing at a slightly better level than us."

When it gets to this time of year, Teemore and Championship team are closely associated words. The Shamrocks were known for lifting the intensity when the Championship begins.

But McManus is honest in his assessment: "If you look at the last five or six years if you had said Teemore are a championship team you would have been saying the wrong thing."

And he knows there is one way to change that again, adding: "We need to change things and the only way we can change things is by winning an Intermediate Championship and getting back into the Senior Championship."