Pete McGrath is expected to make a decision on his future as Fermanagh manager this week.

The Down man's fourth year in charge of the Erne County ended with a nine-point All-Ireland qualifier loss to Armagh at the Athletic Grounds yesterday evening.

"I think the management will sit down maybe this week sometime and we'll take a decision about whether we feel we can take this group any further than we have taken them," he is quoted as saying in the Impartial Reporter.

"The first season was a getting-to-know-you season and there was no damage done. 2015 was a great odyssey in getting promotion and getting to the All-Ireland quarter-final and last year we stayed in Division 2 and then had that game against Mayo where we were maybe a bit unfortunate. But this year has just been an annus horribilis, just horrible. You are relegated and you lose two championship matches each by a margin of nine points, it doesn't get much worse than that so we'll have to look at that."

McGrath had no complaints about yesterday's defeat.

"We had a good opening 20 minutes when we went from two down to three up but then they scored five-in-a-row," he reflected.

"In the second half, Armagh showed more strength, more power, more penetration, more cohesion and we started to struggle in key areas of the field. We had too many attacks that ended up turned over and we were then punished down the other end.

"The longer the second half went on Armagh looked a better team, they were stronger, they were more physical, they were getting through us easier and in the end it was a disappointing performance."

Tweet

Most Read Stories