So there I was tripping with a light heart and a lighter step out of Pairc Esler a few Sundays past.

And why not?

Fermanagh had just collected an all too rare victory over aristocratic Down and for the first time in my memory at least, it was a senior success in Newry.

The team not only had beaten a highly regarded opposition, a county with no less than five Sam Maguire triumphs to decorate their CV, but to add an extra tang of satisfaction, it had been a win that had been pickpocketed to some extent.

And in the process of mastering Down, Fermanagh had rounded off in committed and determined fashion, a seven match campaign, which at the outset in February had appeared a formidable one. Just a solitary point dropped, the best performance from any team over the four divisions of the National League

Promotion gained, the team doing well. A national final of some substance to look immediately ahead to the following Sunday. After that the enticing prospect of mounting a decent stab at the championship.

But I was then to have a brief, passing conversation with a Fermanagh fan (from Tempo) and he was a far from happy camper.

The cause of his vexation lay in the fact that some of his companions, as they walked out of the ground discussing the match, had been dismissive of Fermanagh's noteworthy success.

What had raised his ire was something to the effect that really Fermanagh's achievement in overcoming Down in their own backyard was nothing to write home about.

Sure wasn't that Down team just about the worst ever seen in the famed red and black jersey. They couldn't hold a candle to Mourne teams of the historic past.

This apparently was the gist of the conversation and it had struck a nerve in my peeved friend

And of course, when I came to reflect on it, he had a perfectly valid reason to feel jaundiced and sore with the deprecating attitude of the company.

There we were with a fine victory to celebrate, plus an unbeaten run of seven games in a fiercely competitive league section. And what were many Fermanagh fans doing?

Why they were selling the efforts of the team short.

It is a dispiriting state of mind but one which is depressingly common. I suppose decades of only limited success has ingrained a pessimistic outlook in the minds of many.

There is a wariness about becoming too enthusiastic about the county side if it begins to perform well.

It could also be said that the fainthearted distance themselves from the team so that they don't become associated with failure. Fermanagh's poor record really has got nothing to do with them. You avoid, if at all possible, being tarred with the same brush.

The reverse is true in successful counties. Here the world and his neighbour jump on the bandwagon and revel in the reflected glory. There are scores, if not hundreds of 'supporters' in successful counties who adopt a superior attitude simply because their county team has enjoyed national achievement.

A considerable number of this patronising horde have contributed absolutely nothing to their counties success. Their only association with the team is that they were born in the same county.

But it is somewhat galling when Fermanagh fans fail to talk up the team's achievements when there is a measure of success.

But such is the way of the world.

But it is somewhat galling when Fermanagh fans fail to talk up the team's achievements when there is a measure of success. Of course, given the circumstances we find ourselves in, we are generally going to be on the periphery.

Yet in recent seasons at least we have been punching above our weight. And it does our players a disservice if we fail to recognise and appreciate what they have achieved.

I personally wouldn't like to open a conversation with any of them by suggesting that topping the third division with an unbeaten run that included a fine victory in Newry, wasn't worth a row of beans.

And in Parnell Park the team delivered as resolute a performance as could be asked of them against a side of Wexford's calibre.

I suppose the above has been something of a rant so I may as well finish off in similar vein.

There I was sitting in Parnell Park with a light heart, for the game had still to start, when another Fermanagh supporter ( this one from Kinawley), suggested that I should comment in this column on the fact that the scoreboard had Fermanagh and Wexford in English.

I made a non committal reply and in truth wasn't going to pick up on what might seem a relatively petty point.

But for the following division one final between Derry and Kerry, the respective names were in Gaeilge.

I know it's nitpicking.

But still!