Laois held their own against Dublin for three quarters of their Leinster SFC quarter-final encounter and manager Tomas O Flatharta wants them to build on that morale boosting performance.

The Kerry native is expecting their Ulster opponents to provide stiff opposition in round one of the qualifiers in what will be the first ever championship meeting between the two counties.

"Pete McGrath will have them ready for us. The most important thing for us is to focus on ourselves and to get ourselves right.

"We need to move on with the things that worked well for us against Dublin. There are things that we identified in that game that we need to improve on and we're working on those already."

McGrath's side, meanwhile, will be looking to redeem themselves following their Ulster SFC exit at the hands of Antrim.

"We have to sustain our good periods of play for longer," he remarked. "We played for ten minutes of the first half and ten minutes of the second half and scored 3-13."

Verdict - Laois.

Laois team: Graham Brody; Padraig McMahon, Denis Booth, Peter O'Leary; Darren Strong, Paul Begley, Colm Begley; Conor Meredith, John O'Loughlin; James Finn, Billy Sheehan, Niall Donoher; Ross Munnelly, Donal Kingston, David Conway.

Fermanagh team: Chris Snow; Marty O'Brien, Barry Mulrone, Niall Cassidy; Declan McCusker, Ryan McCluskey, Tommy McElroy; Eoin Donnelly (Capt) Richard O'Callaghan; Lee Cullen, Ryan Jones, Paul McCusker; Ruairí Corrigan, Sean Quigley, Barry Owens.

Match details: Saturday, Portlaoise, 3.30pm. LIVE on RTE1

Referee: David Coldrick (Meath).

Odds: Laois 3/10, Draw 9/1, Fermanagh 3/1. Tweet

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