Sunday’s win over Clare means that target one for the league has been met by Fermanagh as they have now guaranteed their place in the division for another year.

However, with that in the bag the focus can now switch to getting the results required to push them out of the division at the other end and seal promotion to Division One.

The experienced Declan McCusker though knew it was first things first last Sunday and he acknowledges the importance of the win over Clare at Brewster Park.

“Whenever we beat Donegal there was obviously a bit of chat but we were focused straight away on Clare because it was a massive game. If we had lost it you were back into the relegation battle because Clare would only be a point behind you, Armagh would only be two behind and it would have tightened everything right up. The you are away to Armagh and away to Meath, two tough games and you could have been looking the other way and maybe relegation back to Division Three. We just wanted to make sure that we secured our Division Two status for next year on Sunday and thankfully we did that,” he said.

He stresses though that it was a difficult contest against the Bannermen.

“We always knew it was going to be a tough game because Clare are a seasoned Division Two side now. It felt that we never really got going but at the same time it never looked like it was ever getting away from us and in the second half we went four up and I didn’t think we ever looked like getting beat after that,” he said.

He is not though prepared to start dreaming about playing in the top flight with Fermanagh still having work to do if they are to achieve that.

“If we win and Meath win the next day we will be promoted and to play in Division One would be a brilliant but we still have a lot of work to do to get there. We will focus on Armagh for now and if it happens we can worry about that then.

“Going away to Armagh is always going to be a huge battle and we would have a bit of rivalry with them from last year when we drew in the league, they beat us in the league final and we beat them in the Championship. We know that we won’t get anything easy of them and we will just fully focus on that now and see how it goes,” he stated.

Division Two is again proving to be highly competitive and with that in mind McCusker says that it is just a matter of Fermanagh taking it one game at a time.

“It is a funny league. The bookies had us favourites to go down and a lot of people predicted us to be relegated. I never thought we would get relegated but it is one of those divisions that four or five teams could win it and equally four or five teams or even more could go down. I think one year in Division Two there was a team that, depending on results on the last day, could have gone up or could have been relegated. It is that type of division. It is hard to set your targets at the start of the year and we have just taken it one game at a time and we will continue to do that,” he said.

Fermanagh though have managed to build on a good 2018 and the Ederney man feels it is down to a number of factors.

“I suppose last year Rory and Ricey came in and started working on a gameplan and it takes time to bed in and for boys to learn it. Obviously, we have a better idea of what we are doing and what they want from us this year. Then you have young players coming into the squad and pushing the thing on and also boys from last year learning and players just improving and playing smarter,”he explained.