Lowly Fermanagh prepared to exploit southern comfort

HERE’S an interesting statistic. Fermanagh have been to Croke Park twice since Cork footballers last played there.

On Saturday, they will visit headquarters for the third time in their history, yet nobody outside the borderlands believes Billy Morgan's team will be unduly troubled.

It's something you learn to accept when you are from Fermanagh. When Charlie Mulgrew's young, hungry side dealt a possibly fatal blow to Sean Boylan's reign a few weeks ago, the pundits decided the result called for more of a Royal inquest than patting Fermanagh on the back.

"That's the way things are," Mulgrew says. "You can't get worried about it. Meath are the big news. I haven't been paying attention to what the media said about Fermanagh."

In the spring, there was a lot said about Fermanagh. Established names were calling it a day, and they were sinking fast in Division One. Dom Corrigan quit last December, amid a flurry of rumour, after leading the small county to its most astonishing summer ever. It might have ended with one of those Tyrone demolition jobs in Croke Park, but that was in an All-Ireland quarter-final.

The scale of that achievement went unrecognised. Fermanagh have the smallest player base in the country 18 clubs, six of whom are senior. Their problems were summed up by an official after another Ulster hiding.

He quipped: "We have big problems with players in Fermanagh. Half the county is Protestant and half of the other half is water."

Mulgrew doesn't want to talk about the loss of Raymie Gallagher and Paul Brewster, saying it does a disservice to the young stars, like Mark Little and James Sherry, he has brought in.

"I don't want to talk about anyone who left. This is about the youthful lads. I was honoured to be given the job. Fermanagh is a good footballing county with a good tradition. I saw first-hand the strides they made in the past few years and it was a challenge to try to bring that on."

In the League, despite some gutsy displays, they looked out of their depth, but Mulgrew's young players were getting valuable experience.

"It was a tough enough League campaign, but we had a decent run. In some of the games, there were a few crucial refereeing decisions we didn't get, but all I needed was to build a bit of belief in the players, especially the younger players, because they were giving it their best shot.

"So when we drew Meath, we just thought 'let's work towards winning this'. We kept in there, and dug out a result. But playing Cork in Croke Park is a different story. It is a great opportunity for the team, but it is another step up for them.

"What I am looking for is the players to put in a performance that does justice to their talents."