BY COLM BRADLEY
I'm getting a little sick of all this patronising from the GAA punditary world. 'Plucky little Fermanagh,' 'brave little Fermanagh,' 'good old Fermanagh.'
What stone have these experts been living under for the past half a decade. An All Ireland quarter final, an All Ireland semi final, a division one league semi final and now an Ulster final all have been reached since 2003.
The place in this years Ulster final, regardless of the result, guarantees Fermanagh a spot in the last 12 of the All Ireland.
This means that in the last six years Fermanagh has reached the last 12 or better four times. All this from the hardest province in Ireland too. Only Tyrone and Armagh in Ulster boast better records yet pundits continue to patronise us.
The latest line of thought is that Derry had better players but Fermanagh has a better system. Rubbish. We had as good if not better players and we had a good system.
But anyway, that's enough ranting. On to the match.
Saturday night was a tremendous victory. Watching Fermanagh in the championship in the last number of years supporters have come to expect passion, drive and commitment and on Saturday we got all these attributes in abundance. But we also got a few other ingredients which have on occasions been missing from the mix. The first was a total belief. This Fermanagh squad believed they were going to win. Of course this alone cannot guarantee victory but it is a powerful ally to have in your corner. Another ally that the Fermanagh men brought into battle was steel. They were going to do what they had to do to win this game.
Some Derry supporters complained about how cynical Fermanagh were in the last ten minutes and about how negative our tactics were. It was music to my ears. In the past five or six years every team that has won an All Ireland could play cynical football. Kerry are the most cynical bunch out there while Mayo cannot even spell the word. Kerry are winners of All Ireland's while Mayo are winners of Connaught titles. There is the difference.
Fermanagh were brilliant on Saturday particularly given the start that they had. Six points down after 15 minutes it looked like a return to the dark days of Ulster hammerings but O'Rourke and his players never panicked. O'Rourke was calm on the sideline, consulted his fellow selectors and made the switches. What was so impressive was that O'Rourke was prepared to tweak his game plan while at the same time the players on the pitch were able to adapt to those changes seamlessly without ever losing faith in their managers instructions.
There was a ferocious intensity to Fermanagh's performance but it was always controlled. The pattern of play was always adhered to and people played to their roles but they did so with a hunger and intensity that Derry simply could not match.
People point to the fact that Fermanagh do not have a natural forward to score four or five points from play every game and that may well be the case, but on the counter side of that there is a wealth of evidence to suggest that one out and out scoring threat is not entirely beneficial.
Fermanagh's starting forwards contributed five points from play on Saturday while midfield, half backs and substitutes scored 1-3 between them.
Ryan Keenan landed three pressure frees and we were left with a final tally of 14 points.
Fermanagh's defence meanwhile was imperious after a shaky start and conceding only ten scores against this Derry team is a fine achievement. Packing the back line and breaking in numbers is very hard to both score against and also to defend for an opposition.
In this Sunday's semi final Armagh take on Down and although most people consider Down a hard team to stop when they get a run of results I for one am hoping that the Mourne men overcome Armagh.
Down have a very weak defence, as both games against a very blunted Tyrone attack showed while I would be confident that Fermanagh could keep the Down forwards happy.
Alas I do not expect Down to get within five or six points of Armagh and it will be the old enemies in the Orchard county that we will be facing in the final.
We can expect a dour game. Armagh play with lots of players behind the ball and have the ability to grind out results. They have been rejuvenated under Peter McDonnell and looked very impressive against, and albeit very poor, Cavan side.
Fermanagh can beat both Down and Armagh .
If it's Armagh it will not be pretty and a 12 point margin will be needed. and once again I think a goal will be needed.
But this Fermanagh team can do it and who knows if they do, maybe they will get some respect.
On second thoughts, who cares if we have the Anglo Celt by the banks of the Erne for the first time ever.
