Lisnaskea Emmett’s are true Fermanagh blue bloods with championship pedigree going back to the 1940s and 1950s, the decade of the late great Tommy Durnien.

They are a proud club with a great tradition, and they buried one of their recent legends Gerry McIlroy earlier this year.

But, a mere two years ago, this once top club pretty much hit rock bottom and went down to the Junior championship.

This was a big comedown from winning an All-Ireland Intermediate championship as recently as 2011.

But, ex-Enniskillen boss John Reihill took over in Skea and it has been steady progress back to where they feel they truly belong.

Reflecting on this easiest of wins last Saturday, Reihill said: “Obviously St. Pat’s are missing quite a few players, and they have a more important relegation play-off in a fortnight.

“We knew that and there was a tragedy in the area too which takes its toll.

“So, we knew that if we played our game, we would have chances.

“We started well in the first 15 minutes against a strong breeze, and we went off the plan a bit in the second quarter.

“At half-time we talked about this, and we thought there was much more in us and we knew that St. Pat’s would get tired as well.”

He added: “We also heard at half-time that Irvinestown were winning by about 17 points, so we knew we had to up our scoring rate as we were only three points ahead of them on scoring average.

“That was the whole focus, and we needed to get goals, but they also lost two men.

“We are now through to the semi-finals and we are happy.”

Reihill has the team playing to a plan and they will be a formidable force in the semi-finals.

“The semi-final is now three weeks away and we will have to try and see if we can get a challenge match in between.”

Reihill has a young team, and he referenced a huge improvement in the team in the past few years and this is his third season in charge.

“We now have 15 and five or six men who can come on and make a difference which is a big change.

“It is a big improvement from two years ago and it is growing.

“We still have Mark Little who is a great link player, and we don’t seem to play as well when he is not there.

“Mark was always that type of player and he is in great shape for a player of 43.”

Reihill makes no secret that ‘Skea have firmly targeted the Intermediate championship after easily beating Aghadrumsee in last year’s junior county final.

Skea have won nothing really of note since that Intermediate All-Ireland title back in 2011.

Reihill said he was happy for the club to go down to junior to allow a re-building process which seems to be going well.

“We think the potential is there and it is about executing it and completing it and we will have two tough games if we get to the final.”