Fermanagh take on Derry this Sunday just three weeks on from their Ulster Junior final success over the Oak Leaf County.
The sides meet again this weekend this weekend in Donagh as the Erne side look to replicate their performance in Augher last month as they dismantled Derry with a scoreline of 6-14 to 0-10 in a one-sided contest.
CJ McGourty’s side aim to kickstart their All-Ireland Junior with a win over their familiar foes as McGourty wants his side to continue their form: “Every day you are bound to get some positives and negatives. That’s football for you, but yeah pretty much (we want) more of the same from the start and try to build on what we did the last day.
"I thought our performance was very good in the Ulster final, our shooting ratio was up, and our tackling rate was up, so, we want more of the same and our message will be that it’s a different day out from the final so, we’re going to have to go out and earn it and make sure we win the game. Pretty much more of the same.”
Sligo, London and Carlow are also in Fermanagh’s group with the opening fixtures being played last weekend as Carlow defeated Sligo 4-06 to 1-10 and Derry picked off London with a 1-15 to 1-06 scoreline.
Fermanagh’s players have had three weeks off from county action but have played club games to keep sharpness ahead of their opener.
“It’s been a nice draw for us, in terms of, having a week off a lot of them teams played last week so, after Ulster, it allowed us for a bit of time to get a wee bit of fitness again, a wee bit of skillset that we need to improve on,” McGourty added.
“We have Derry first up then Sligo, Carlow and then London to finish. There are positives and negatives, we got a big break after the Ulster final.
"The games are going to come thick and fast, that’s why we’ve tried to build a squad, you can pick up injuries somewhere along the line.
"I went to watch Derry and London myself on Sunday afternoon and Conor McGovern, a member of the backroom staff, went to Sligo and Carlow, so, we had all bases covered.
"I think the group of girls have worked too hard for us to leave them wide open, so, we had all bases covered on Sunday. We weren’t out ourselves, but we needed to go and find a bit out about Sligo and London as well, so, we did that on Sunday.”
McGourty knows that a win on Sunday is not guaranteed even if they did ease to victory en route to lifting the Ulster championships, but anything can happen in football.
“Every day you go out in football it takes on its own sort of story, the story hopefully on Sunday is that we get two points and that’s the only focus the group has right now and we’re not looking ahead to Sligo and Carlow.
"It’s cliché to say ‘Take it one game at a time’ but we’re under no illusions we need to win on Sunday and kickstart our All-Ireland campaign.
"Derry already have two points, we need to try and get two points to match them and we’ll take it from there.
"Obviously, the aim is to try and get through the group and make it an All-Ireland final. There’s a lot of football to be played up until then, a lot of uphill tasks, it’s three or four decent teams.”
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