THE Fermanagh SFC starts this weekend and first up on Friday evening is a clash of league champions, Division One winners Enniskillen Gaels hosting Division Two victors Teemore Shamrocks.
Gaels captured their first league title since 2001, beating Derrygonnelly in the decider, but all the focus has swiftly turned towards the championship. Boss Simon Bradley is hoping they can carry that momentum through to the business end of the season, though he isn’t sure if his side are playing just as well as they were a couple of weeks ago.
“It’s what you train for and what players play for, to play in these games and the crowds get bigger and the pressure mounts but that’s what you want as a player,” said Bradley.
“We’re probably not in as good a form as we were six or eight weeks ago but hopefully that’s just a wee blip and we find it again.
“We still seem to be winning games, which is a good sign, so we’re hoping to increase our performance a wee bit over the next four or five weeks.”
Bradley believes that home advantage is huge in the early rounds.
“Teemore are underdogs for Friday night, coming up from Division Two,” he added.
“If I was in their position I’d prefer to have this game on their home patch. It is a big advantage for us because we’ve done a fair bit of training on the pitch.
“We’ve been under lights now three or four times in the last couple of weeks. It’s certainly a bit of an advantage, there’s no point in saying anything else.”
While Teemore are undoubtedly the pre-game underdogs, Bradley and his players won’t be taking their challenge lightly, having witnessed up close the talent within the Teemore ranks.
“I would know a fair bit about them, we’ve done a fair bit of work on them,” he explained.
“I would know a lot of their players; I would have worked with some of them at underage level with county teams in the past.
“I would know them well and I know Tony (Collins, the Teemore manager) very well too. The two of us were in the same year group so I’m under no illusions of what’s coming on Friday night. They were very impressive against Irvinestown (in the league final).
“They were 6-2 down and another score or two and maybe Irvinestown would have been out the gate, but Teemore dug in as Teemore teams do and probably the best team won it on the day. I was very impressed with them.”
Bradley will have a full panel to pick from, which should help the hosts get off to a good start.
Round one (first-named teams at home)
Group A
Friday Enniskillen v Teemore (8pm)
Saturday Kinawley v Belnaleck (6pm)
Group B
Sunday
Belleek v Ederney (12.45pm)
Derrygonnelly v Devenish (3pm)