CJ McGourty seemed to be relieved that his side were eventually able to overthrow a much-improved Derry side from when the teams last met.

He cast a frustrated figure at times in the first-half at Brewster Park but Fermanagh’s football began to flow more freely after the restart as they hit six points without reply to open the second half.

You would forgive the Erne side for expecting a more straightforward affair after they swept aside their close rivals in the Ulster Junior Championship final in May, but Derry posed a different proposition from that day in Augher and it was made more difficult by the fact the home side lost defender Ciara Clarke to injury in the warm-up.

“It’s championship football, things don’t go your way every day,” McGourty said.

“We had to adapt, we had to change, make a few positional changes.

"We’re under no illusions, without making excuses, that Derry have improved but we expected that. We watched them against London, we watched them against Carlow.

"The Ulster final day, they obviously just didn’t show up, as I said to the  girls ‘Every championship match, no matter if it's men’s or women’s, 90 per cent are won by six points or less’. That’s what we were expecting last night.

"It tested us in a lot of ways which was good, it's better to find out now what works and what doesn’t work. We have a lot of work to do, to get things right.”

Bronagh Smyth’s goal seconds before halftime injected an air of reassurance for spectators at Brewster Park as it cut the gap down to just two points at the interval.

“It's actually pleasing that aspect, we’ve talked to the girls about not panicking, whether we’re six up and the other team has scored a goal or whether we score a goal and we just reset, and try to get the next score,” McGourty added.

“We went six (points) down and could have hit the panic stations but in fairness, the players stayed in control and we scored a goal and a point in the last few minutes of the first-half, which brought it back to a two-point game which is obviously much more manageable.

"At half-time, it was very simple, we understood that the girls were low in energy after the weekend. Derry hadn’t played at the weekend. We gave away the ball 20 or 22 times in the first-half, in their half of the field and you just can't do that in championship football.

"I think they scored 2-02 off it. We were giving the ball away far too easy, and we cleaned that up a bit in the second half.”

The win confirmed Fermanagh’s place in the semi-final of the All-Ireland competition after an impressive second group game win in Carlow four days beforehand.

“We hadn’t done anything from the weekend because Sunday (against Carlow) was heavy in the heat,” McGourty continued.

“We just let them go from Sunday to Wednesday. We pressed high, we had a bit more energy and a better mindset with going down and hunting in packs to get the ball.

"There’s benefits from that but also we leaked a couple of goals, we have to adjust and think about things. 

"We scored 0-10 off Carlow pressing high, we scored 1-07 last night (Wednesday) There is benefits to pressing high but we have to make tweaks as well.”

The final round of group fixtures will see the Erne side play London in Killeeshil, Dungannon, this Sunday as they look to make it four from four in the group.

“We’ll see what way the bodies are, we’ll do a bit of training, probably shooting,” concluded McGourty.

“I'd say we’ll rest two or three because we’ve had a lot of game time. Just looking at it, there’s one or two girls that have covered 17K over the two matches, so, we have to look at that.

"To be honest, we’ll be looking a better performance from the girls on Sunday. I don’t see too many changes, just trying to get things right.”