BY DAMIEN CAMPBELL
Refurbished Brewster Park will be thronged on Sunday for the latest instalment of the Fermanagh- Monaghan championship rivalry.
Some seasons back the pair was to be regularly pitched against each other, four successive summers of combative battle with Fermanagh scooping the bragging rights on a ratio of three wins to one.
The counties have gone their separate championship ways since then but Sunday sees a renewal of the old acquaintance and it has every promise of being an exceptionally tight game one of the more intriguing of the quarter final lineup.
Both counties will be coming into the contest holding out real hope that they will be able to progress through to the semi final and it will be a hope for both which is rooted in solid ground.
For both counties have come through the recent league programme with a lot of positives to bolster their self belief that they can make headway in this summer's championship.
Fermanagh have put behind them the memory of a lamentable 2007 and have carved out a promotion from the third division. Just one major blemish on their record, that divisional final reversal against Wexford.
As for Monaghan they were operating in the second division and for long looked capable of heading up to the top grade. They missed out due to a faltering finish but that may well have been a blessing in disguise.
That late slippage on their part will have erased any sense of over confidence, a timely wake up call and no doubt their management will be driving home the message that there is going to be nothing easy in Brewster Park.
Monaghan have been one of the country's higher profile teams over the past eighteen months and the spotlight homed in on them in no uncertain fashion after they came within a whisker of dispatching Kerry in the quarter final of last year.
A heartbreaking late defeat for them but this will only have whetted their appetite and though they would obviously liked to have claimed promotion a few weeks back, their focus on the championship will not have been unduly ruffled.
Monaghan arrive in Brewster Park with a deep sense of mission and purpose. They will be a driven team, driven by a hugely motivated manager in Seamus McEnaney. And their belief will not be found wanting.
Defensively they will prove a difficult combination for the Fermanagh forward line to break down. No shortage of experienced hands on board here with Damian Freeman at wing half and Dermot McArdle plus John Paul Mone in the full back line knitting the rearguard together.
In the middle of the park the expected duo on duty should be Dick Clerkin and Eoin Lennon a workmanlike pairing who have steadily turned in steady if unspectacular contributions.
It is up front however that Monaghan have sparkled with corner forward Tomas Freeman clearly their key weapon. He is a proven scoretaker and Fermanagh will certainly be aware of the crucial need to curb his input. Also a major contributor to the Monaghan scoring rate is place kicker Paul Finlay while a more decided physical presence comes from Rory Woods and Vincent Corey.
Monaghan will be a totally committed side coming into Brewster Park and no doubt will have their belief boosted by the memory of their last visit to Enniskillen when they ambushed a Fermanagh team who had been installed as favourites.
Two quick Monaghan goals torpedoed hapless Fermanagh and though the Erne team made a valiant effort in the second half to undo the damage they couldn't bridge the gap that had been opened up.
Absolutely crucial for Fermanagh that they don't allow a similar scenario to develop this coming Sunday.
If Monaghan have had a late wake up call in the league, it could be asserted that it was much the same for Fermanagh as they saw their proud unbeaten record smashed when they lost out to Wexford in the recent league decider.
A lot of good things for Fermanagh in that Parnell Park game but counterbalanced by some worrying matters also.
None more so than in defence where a disastrous three goal tally was leaked, these goals the end result of some lamentably poor and basic errors. A lot of thought will have to go into the selection here in order to address the problems that surfaced in Parnell Park especially in the light of the fact that the Monaghan attacking strategy will be channelled through a couple of key figures.
Particular players allocated specific tasks would appear to be required here.
But in other ways the defence has been basically doing well enough and it would have to be accepted that a couple of the goals conceded against Wexford were, hopefully, one off happenings. Things which ordinarily simply do not occur at least at this level.
Individually there will be much looked to from the organisation of Ryan McCluskey and the attacking instincts of wing halves Damian Kelly and Thomas McElroy. Some concern however about the full back slot with Shane Lyons who had begun to settle in here a major doubt due to injury.
In light of the fact that Monaghan have an especially threatening front line this would have to be looked on as a potentially damaging area for the home side.
Around the middle of the park, Fermanagh have at last begun to exert a measure of dominance with Mark Murphy in particular running into a rich vein of form. Winning a decent amount of possession in the centre is fundamental for the well being of all teams and that has been achieved. There is no reason to doubt that this level of performance cannot be sustained.
There will be a number of combinations considered here which always gives the comfort of having a fall back position should things unravel.
Essential then that adequate possession is channelled into the attack for without the ball the forward line won't operate.
Eamon Maguire has been the team's most consistent player up front and a big game from him would certainly be a massive boost. Less consistent have been Mark Little, Ryan Keenan and Ciaran McElroy but all three have had their good days and over the course of the league there have been some sizeable scorelines totted up by a forward line that can be inventive and pacy.
So Fermanagh come into the game in good shape. The team will have been strengthened mentally by the record in the league. Back on home sod will also be an added factor.
Monaghan will be daunting opposition, their commitment will be steely and they will have buckets of ambition.
So Fermanagh face a formidable challenge but there are a lot of optimistic factors that Fermanagh can plug into.
The ability is there to make the return to Brewster Park a memorable one.
