Fermanagh's opponents in the Saturday June 21st Ulster semi final in Healy Park, Omagh will be Derry.
The Oak Leaf county claimed their semi final slot by defeating Donegal in a teak tough quarter final meeting in Ballybofey last Sunday, the current NFL Division one champions recovering from a hesitant first half display to come through with a two point winning margin.
Viewing the action in Mac Cumhaill Park was the Fermanagh management team and they came away with an appreciation of just how tough the assignment that lies in store for the Erne county in a few week's time.
Team manager Malachy O'Rourke when asked for a brief comment on the Ballybofey set to noted that, "Donegal opened very strong and by half time they had got themselves into a good position to win the game.
"But Derry came out in the second half, showed great character and were the better side over the second half, deserving their victory in the end. Defensively they tightened up,were very solid in the midfield and had a Man of the Match performance from Paddy Bradley.
It gave us food for thought and we are under no illusion as to the difficulty of the task that awaits us."
O'Rourke of course has an intimate knowledge of Derry football having steered the Loup not only to the county championship crown but also to provincial triumph.
"I suppose I would have a good handle on many of the Derry players," he admitted," though whether this is an advantage or not is another question."
Fermanagh last faced Derry back in February in a Dr McKenna Cup tie in Maghera, Derry winning that tussle but O'Rourke is emphatic that this will have little or no bearing on the championship battle.
"In that game we were basically still finding our feet and Derry were in a similar position. In any case this is a totally new situation, a new game, a new challenge."
Asked for his reflections on the victory over Monaghan now that he has had time to ponder over that match, O'Rourke re-emphasised," that the most pleasing thing was the all round effort with all doing the job asked of them. But we would know that we will have to convert more of our scoring opportunities, for the higher level you go it is important to be more economical.
In any case the Monaghan game was only a step. We hope of course that there will be many more steps."
Member of the backroom team Paul Coyle was impressed by the way, " that Derry upped the intensity of their game both collectively and individually.
They had a lot of wides in the first half but at the interval they went in and got themselves re-organised. They had withstood what Donegal had thrown at them in that opening half. They are a big, strong and physical side and they will be a formidable challenge for us.
But it is a challenge that we are looking ahead to."
At Monday night's Co Board meeting county chairman Peter Carty warmly congratulated the team and the management on their success. He also thanked the minor team players and their management on their committed effort though this was to end in disappointment in the end.
Delegates to Co Board criticised the slow distribution of tickets from Ulster Council for the Brewster Park match which had created considerable problems for clubs and county officials to cope with. There was also hostile comment on the revelation that for the semi final there will be no 'family ticket'scheme in operation.
Children on reduced price tickets will only be accommodated in groups accompanied by adults and they will be allocated on terraces behind one of the goals.
Reason for this strategy is that the only seats in Healy Park are in the covered stand area. All other sections of the ground are terraced. Health and safety issues come into play with the expectation of there being a big attendance present.
