Antrim manager Jody Gormley says he believes his team can regroup from their National League implosion to beat Cavan in Sunday's Ulster SFC opener.
The Saffrons missed out on promotion from Division 4 of the NFL when they lost their final two games against Tipperary and Waterford.
"It's a game we can win. It's not the toughest draw that we could have got," Gormley told BBC Sport.
"We'll have due respect for Cavan but we'll be doing out utmost to win."
Gormley appeared shellshocked in the minutes after the embarrassing defeat by Waterford as the apparently unthinkable transpired at Casement.
The Trillick man acknowledges that "disappointment" lingered in the camp "for a day or two" after the league flop.
"But fellows quickly got themselves together and they are looking forward to Sunday's challenge.
"The National League is over now and the fellows have put that behind them.
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"They see the challenge of Cavan and they believe it's a game they can win."
In the immediate aftermath of the Waterford defeat, Gormley appeared at a loss to explain the dismal display.
Nearly four weeks on, Gormley ventures that a "few niggly injuries" and a "slight air of complacency" may have been contributory factors.
"If we look back last year in the league, we won the two games against Tipperary and Waterford quite convincingly.
"It's always difficult to cover all the bases but hopefully the fellows have learned from those experiences."
Gormley acknowledges that his captain Sean Kelly is an "important" player for the Saffrons and the skipper says that leading his county for the first time in a championship game will be a "fantastic honour".
Kelly says that it took the squad "a couple of weeks" to recover from the nightmare finish to the league.
"But the training has picked up, the intensity has picked up and the mood has picked up," said Kelly.
"The papers and what other people were saying, I didn't take much notice of"
"This is the be all and end all. It's one match and if we don't win, we're into the Tommy Murphy Cup. We'd prefer to stay in the Ulster Championship."
Kelly says the failure to secure promotion to Division 3 was "hard to explain".
"If we knew the answer, we would have changed it around for the Waterford match."
The Saffrons came in for some heavy duty criticism after the league but Kelly read and heard little of the scathing reports.
"The papers and what other people were saying, I didn't take much notice of.
"But I was disappointed for us as a team because we want and need to get out of Division 4.
"We didn't achieve that and that was disappointing for us as players."
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