Donegal V Derry, June 1st

[Our Nail Loney]

From Boylesports...

Donegal +1 1/1
Derry -1 21/20

Even money for the draw or a Donegal win. hmmm....

[Will Hunting]

From Boylesports...

Donegal +1 1/1
Derry -1 21/20

Even money for the draw or a Donegal win. hmmm....

Good laying price!

[charlie stubbs]

From Boylesports...

Donegal +1 1/1
Derry -1 21/20

Even money for the draw or a Donegal win. hmmm....

bookies not giving much away here, i would say this is part due to derrys national league and fermanagh upsetting the odds on home soil laseek

[Oakleafer1993]

USFC: Donegal v Derry 
The Derry team for the Ulster Senior Football Championship First round game against Donegal on Sunday has now been named

Competition: Ulster Senior Football Championship Quarter-Final

Date: Sunday 1st June 2008

Team: Derry

Opposition: Donegal

Captain: Kevin McCloy

Manager (s): Paddy Crozier (Manager);

John McCloskey; Bernie Henry; Peter Doherty; Martin Heaney.

No. Name (As Gaelige) Name (In English) Club (As Gaelige)

1  Seán Ó Díochon John Deighan Léim an Mhadaidh

2 Caoimhín Mag Eoghaín Kevin McGuckin Baile an Doire

3  Caoimhín MacLuaidh  Kevin McCloy  An Leamhaigh

4 Seán Máirtín Locard  Sean Martin Lockhart  Beannchar

5  Gearard Ó Catháin  Gerard O'Kane Gleann Iolar

6 Niall Mac Oscair Niall McCusker Baile an Doire

7  Mícheál Mac Íomhair  Michael McIvor  Baile an Doire

8  Fearghal Ó Dochartaigh Fergal Doherty Baile Eochaidh

9  Seosamh Mac Duibhír  Joe Diver  Baile Eochaidh

10  Marcas Ó Loingsigh  Mark Lynch Beannchar

11  Pól Ó Murchú  Paul Murphy  Dún Geimhin

12  Éanna Ó Maoldúin  Enda Muldoon  Baile an Doire

13  Connlaodh Mac Giollagáin  Conleth Gilligan  Baile an Doire

14 Pádraig Ó Brolcháin  Paddy Bradley  Gleann Iolar

15  Eoin Ó Brolcháin  Eoin Bradley Gleann Iolar

16  Barra Mac Giolla Íosa  Barry Gillis  Machaire Fíolta

17  Pádraig Ó Brolcháin  Patsy Bradley  Leacht Neil

18  Pól Mac Artáin  Paul Cartin  Beannchar

19 Séamas Ó Conbhuí  James Conway  Baile an Doire

20 Coilín Ó Doibhilin Colin Devlin Baile an Doire

21 Riain Diolún Ryan Dillon An tSuaitreagh

22 Seosamh Ó Cianáin Joe Keenan Machaire Fiolta

23  Mícheál Mac Giolla Bhríde  Michael McBride Baile na Scrine

24  Proinsias Mac Giolla Domhnaigh  Francis McEldowney  Leacht Neil

25 Rian Mac Giolla Chomhain Ryan McElhone An Droichead Nua

26  Barra Mac Gualraic Barry McGoldrick Cúlraithin

27  Mícheál Mac Gualraic  Michael McGoldrick  Baile Eochaidh

28 Ciarán Ó Maoláin  Ciaran Mullan  Druim Sorran

29  Pól Ó hAodha  Paul O'Hea Baile an Stil

30  Réamann Mac Uilcín  Raymond Wilkinson Baile an Doire

[J70]

1    Paul Durcan    Na Ceithre Máistrí
2    Karl Lacey    Na Ceithre Máistrí
3    Neil Mc Gee    Gaoth Dobhair
4    Paddy Mc Daid    An Tearmann
5    Frank Mc Glynn    Gleann Fhinne
6    Eamon Mc Gee    Gaoth Dobhair
7    Barry Dunnion    Na Ceithre Máistrí
8    Kevin Cassidy    Gaoth Dobhair
9    Neil Gallagher    Gleann tSúilí
10    Christy Toye    Naomh Mícheál
11    Michael Hegarty    Cill Chartha
12    Rory Kavanagh    Naomh Adhamhnáin
13    Michael Murphy    Gleann tSúilí
14    Colm Mc Fadden    Naomh Mícheál
15    David Walsh    Naomh Bríd

Cassidy back at midfield? Talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul! Might not be too bad if Barry Dunnion is actually fit (any Donegal residents know anything?). Looks like a two-man full forward line of Murphy and McFadden - one undoubtedly lethal, but inconsistent, the other a young kid. David Walsh to make his debut, presumably taking Roper's place dropping back.

Maybe I'm too pessimistic, but I don't see Derry quaking in their boots. We could have a good day if the likes of Toye and Hegarty and McFadden all play as we know they can, but I am just a tad worried about midfield. Perhaps McIver is planning on dropping Dunnion back in on front of the full-backs to help cut the supply to the Bradleys, pulling Cassidy back into his normal wing-back slot and letting Kavanagh and Toye help out Gallagher.

[Donegal Danny]

Despite my earlier prediction that Dunnion wasn't fit it turns out he is. Paddy Mc Daid is struggling and probably will not make it so Cassidy will drop back into the half back line and Rafferty coming into Midfield.

[Rav67]

Karl Lacey picked up Eoin Bradley for most of the league game and then played at half-back for a while in the second half if I remember correctly, will he man-mark PB this time?

[J70]

Karl Lacey picked up Eoin Bradley for most of the league game and then played at half-back for a while in the second half if I remember correctly, will he man-mark PB this time?

I would have thought so, but I thought similar prior to the league game. Lacey had a good game on Bradley two years ago, even if he lost the duel by 3 points to 2. The same again would be satisfactory!

[bennydorano]

Thought for a long time Donegal could easily win this, with that team I wouldn't be confident that they will.  People have been saying for so long that Donegal can beat Derry that it's probably been more beneficial, motivational wise, to Derry than Donegal.  I still have this image of Donegal being brutal in Ballybofey last year and getting out of jail, if they play half as bad on sunday they could get a tanking.

[Fuzzman]

I hope to God Donegal don't play a 2 man FF line cos they're just playing into Derry's hands.

As we saw last Sunday the old tactic of trying to isolate your star forward in loads of space looks to be well over with teams prepared to sacrifice a man or even two to mark the space in front of him

The Derry FB line is pretty awesome anyway but you could see McFadden becoming frustrated again at the lack of decent ball into him and lack of support.

I am looking forward to a cracker of a match though and even if the wife is from Letterkenny and dad will be hard to watch the match with I'm afraid I'm gonna have to shout for the Tir Conaill men.

Donegal must come out all guns blazing though as I think they're a great team when they are leading and believe in themsleves but have no great leaders to stand up and turn a match around on its head.

I fear a Derry win by 4 points but you never know what Donegal team will turn up this time.

[J70]

Thought for a long time Donegal could easily win this, with that team I wouldn't be confident that they will.  People have been saying for so long that Donegal can beat Derry that it's probably been more beneficial, motivational wise, to Derry than Donegal.  I still have this image of Donegal being brutal in Ballybofey last year and getting out of jail, if they play half as bad on sunday they could get a tanking.

I'd be very surprised if we get a tanking at home, but it could be grim. A lot of Donegal players will need to have excellent games for us to win this. My two biggest worries are winning possession and getting scores (although I suppose there isn't too much else one could worry about!) - I think we're good enough at the back not to get taken apart, but if its one-way traffic from midfield, there's only so much the backs can be expected to do. Up front, we relied on 12 points between Rory Kavanagh, Michael Doherty and Karl Lacey to get that surprise win two years ago - can we get a similar contribution from McFadden, Murphy and Kavanagh this time out?

[screenexile]

I hope to God Donegal don't play a 2 man FF line cos they're just playing into Derry's hands.

As we saw last Sunday the old tactic of trying to isolate your star forward in loads of space looks to be well over with teams prepared to sacrifice a man or even two to mark the space in front of him

The Derry FB line is pretty awesome anyway but you could see McFadden becoming frustrated again at the lack of decent ball into him and lack of support.

I am looking forward to a cracker of a match though and even if the wife is from Letterkenny and dad will be hard to watch the match with I'm afraid I'm gonna have to shout for the Tir Conaill men.

Donegal must come out all guns blazing though as I think they're a great team when they are leading and believe in themsleves but have no great leaders to stand up and turn a match around on its head.

I fear a Derry win by 4 points but you never know what Donegal team will turn up this time.

I would have been of the belief that this was true last year Fuzz, especially against Dublin where they were there for the taking and we didn't drive our advantage home after half time. However midway through the Kerry match boys like McCusker, Doherty, Diver and Bradley stood up showed that Derry weren't for lying down this time! I think we've turned a corner this year and I hope we can keep going!

[J70]

I hope to God Donegal don't play a 2 man FF line cos they're just playing into Derry's hands.

As we saw last Sunday the old tactic of trying to isolate your star forward in loads of space looks to be well over with teams prepared to sacrifice a man or even two to mark the space in front of him

The Derry FB line is pretty awesome anyway but you could see McFadden becoming frustrated again at the lack of decent ball into him and lack of support.

I am looking forward to a cracker of a match though and even if the wife is from Letterkenny and dad will be hard to watch the match with I'm afraid I'm gonna have to shout for the Tir Conaill men.

Donegal must come out all guns blazing though as I think they're a great team when they are leading and believe in themsleves but have no great leaders to stand up and turn a match around on its head.

I fear a Derry win by 4 points but you never know what Donegal team will turn up this time.

I would have been of the belief that this was true last year Fuzz, especially against Dublin where they were there for the taking and we didn't drive our advantage home after half time. However midway through the Kerry match boys like McCusker, Doherty, Diver and Bradley stood up showed that Derry weren't for lying down this time! I think we've turned a corner this year and I hope we can keep going!

I think he was talking about Donegal!

[Tyrone Dreamer]

Really wouldnt want to have any major money on this game. Looking forward to one of the 1st big games of the summer. Derry team on paper looks very strong but it is built on players who have failed to deliver time and time again. Although this year there seems to be an added confidence in the squad and a top class trainer will ensure the fitness levels are good. Fergal Doherty is possibly the best midfielder in Ireland and Bradley one of the top forwards. The one thing is I feel there defence may be slightly overrated. Dont get me wrong its decent and has numerous good individuals. However if it is met with a forward line full of pace it could be in trouble. Lockhart isnt as quick as he once was and McCusker at chb wouldnt be the most mobile player about. McCloy has looked far from convincing since winning that all star last year.

If the game was anywere else than Donegal Id probably tip Derry. However at home Donegal are never easy to beat and this could well turn into a low scoring battle similar to the Armagh game last year. Will be interesting to see how Murphy gets on as he could become a real star. The Donegal half forward line on paper looks good but Toye and Hegarty have failed to deliver to often. Im also not convinced that theyre good enough at midfield. I'd probably go for Derry by 2 but its hard to call.

[Estimator]

Read this on the Donegal Page - thought it would fit in well here..



Local rivalry that led to greatness 
Kieran Shannon 

I COME from the rushes. That's what I tell people. I got this coaching job with the Ulster Council four years ago and at this convention of theirs Danny Murphy says to me, "Tony, say a few words." I nearly fell through the floor. I says to myself, 'What the hell am I going to say?'

I just went up there and I said, "You know this, and I'm going to tell you and I'm proud of it - I come from the rushes!" You know what rushes are? Long green things that aren't supposed to be growing in a field if you look after your fields. Well, I come from the rushes.

He's that guy. The one that was on telly the other week, the one Brian McEniff brought in to help Nell McCafferty and Faughanvale, and, in the words of the celebrity bainisteoir herself, "practically levitated" them with an intensity that would make that mister motivator from the lucozade sport ads look as mellow as a Rastafarian.

Nell would hardly have been the first to be mesmerised by that exuberance. A couple of years ago Mark McHugh from Kilcar was part of an Ulster under-16 development squad, and to this day, vouches his father, Mark still talks about the talk Tony Scullion gave them in Jordanstown.

Here they were, among the 45 best in the province. When he was their age, he could barely make the Ballinascreen under-16s.

He never even got a trial for the county minors. "I was told I was too small, not good enough, that I was a failure."

Three years later he was called onto the county under-21 panel. The day of their first round against Armagh, a bag with togs and socks was dropped into the middle of the dressing room and Scullion, being a "backward wee boy from Ballinascreen" and certain he'd be just a sub, let everyone else rush in before gratefully taking the last pair. He soon realised why his socks had been the last pair. There was a hole in both heels. But he gladly put them on, before Mickey Moran and Sean O'Kane named out the team, with a certain Tony Scullion at corner back.

"I could have dropped through the floor.

Oh! Talk about winning the lotto! I was the last out the door, and as I ran out, Jim McGuigan, a great county board stalwart, shouted, 'You, boy, you can't go out there with a pair of socks like them!' And he went to another wee bag and gave me a spanking new pair."

That backward wee boy Jim McGuigan watched frantically slip on those socks and tear towards that field for fear of being late for his own debut would four years later receive an All Star. Scullion was so overwhelmed, he nearly dropped it, but over the years he'd come very familiar with that statute's weight. He'd pick up another three. He played 15 years for Derry. From 1989 on, Ulster won six Railway Cups on the trot. Only Scullion and Martin McQuillan from Armagh started on all six teams. The most anybody else played on was four. In fact, only one other man in the history of the inter-provincials has collected six winners' medals in a row. A fella by the name of Christy Ring.

"Now, boys, " Scullion told McHugh and his peers, "you can achieve more than I ever did. But the law of averages tells us many of ye will fall by the wayside. I don't have to leave my own parish to find far more talented players than I was when I was 18. You can take two roads. The road which leads to high stools and bright lights, or the one in which you go for it and have no regrets later in life."

Martin McHugh could relate to that. It's hard to believe but the man Brian McEniff rightly described as the greatest Donegal football ever was never picked to play minor for the county. He was "too small" as well - and too dogged to leave it at that. On the evening of his 21st birthday, his mother Kathleen had prepared a meal and baked a cake for him after his shooting practice on the club pitch. Down there he had this routine. He'd throw five footballs down at difficult angles and imagine his side were four points down and he had to kick all five over to win the match. If he missed the fifth, he'd start all over again. By the time McHugh returned home that night, his brothers and sisters had finished his meal and cake.

Last Wednesday Martin McHugh - on crutches, unable to drive after a recent operation - made the four-hour round-trip from Kilcar with his loyal friend and neighbour Hugh Shovlin to meet Scullion at Padge Quinn's Corner near Dungannon.

Of course, they had met plenty times before. On the pitches of Ballinascreen and Ballybofey; on the hard - and one notorious day, the treacherous - ground of Clones; in Cavan, Casement, and one time, even Scotland. So intense were some of those Donegal-Derry battles, it appeared they were fuelled on mutual hatred. Not so, Scullion and McHugh claim. They were founded on ambition, desire and mutual respect. McEniff was Scullion's manager for all those Railway Cup wins. In Ulster he might have been ready to kill one of McEniff 's men but for Ulster he would have died for him.

Because what you must appreciate is this. Compared to Dublin and Meath and Cork who formed the more famed, blueblood rivalries of that era, both counties came from the rushes.

A few years ago Tony Scullion had a good chat with John Somers, the old Derry goalkeeping great, who told him how Derry teams used to prepare before Scullion's time. "They'd do a couple of laps of the field in Ballinascreen, kick about a wee bit, then head down to Timoney's for tea and sandwiches and then across the road for Regan's for a few pints. That was Derry training." And they were happy enough with it. Weren't 29 other counties exactly the same?

In the '80s, they picked it up a bit, but it was only when another boy from the rushes, a bricklayer called Eamonn Coleman, took over that they started to train and think like the sport's elite. In 1991 they pushed Down to a replay and Down went on to win that All Ireland. The following spring they won the national league. Then they dumped Down out of the championship. Heading to Clones for the Ulster final, they were ranked the best team in the country.

There, that irresistible force would meet an unmovable object. In 1982 Donegal won the under-21 All Ireland final, McHugh, aptly, kicking five of their eight points. The following year McHugh and five of his under-21 teammates won an Ulster senior title and were within two points of reaching an All Ireland final. "We thought in '84, " smiles McHugh, "it was just a matter of coming back to win something. We didn't get back to an Ulster final until 1989." And they lost that final. In 1991 they lost another to Down. "Walking down the hill in Clones that day, I thought - we all thought - we'd never walk down it again as players."

The following year, they had qualified for another final, but after their semi-final win over Fermanagh McHugh stood up on the dressing-room bench and declared that they were a shambles and that he had no interest in disgracing himself in another Ulster final. It was the cue for Anthony Harkin's famous six weeks of shock training. "Horses, " Anthony Molloy would later say, "wouldn't have done the training we did."

At half-time it looked as if it had been in vain. John Cunningham had just been wrongly sent off. Heading into the dressing room there had been some pushing and shoving, in the midst of which McEniff got a clip, and when he stormed into the dressing room he kicked a bottle of water which flew across the room and busted above Joyce McMullan and Donal Reid.

Then he pinned Joyce McMullan up against the wall. "Do you think that crowd are going to intimidate us?"

What followed was, as Matt Gallagher says, "the best half of football Donegal ever played". They started to run with the ball and at Derry. Gary Coleman didn't know what to do as the spare man. Danny Quinn didn't know what to do with Tommy Ryan.

Scullion didn't know what to do with Declan Bonner. And none of them knew what to do with McHugh, who kicked one of the greatest points Clones ever witnessed. The 14 men had beaten the 15 men by two points, and soon were All Ireland champions for the first time.

Coleman was shell-shocked leaving Clones. "I just can't believe it, " he'd tell reporters. "It will take us a long time to get over this." By the following spring though, they were gunning again for Donegal. In the national league quarter-final in Cavan, Tommy Ryan was stretchered off with a broken jaw and Kieran McKeever was sent off. McEniff got a dig from another Derry player when trying to make a switch. And Anthony Molloy and Brian McGilligan in midfield were going at it again.

The pair of them personified the rivalry.

Before the 1992 Ulster final Molloy attributed his rather subdued displays against Cavan to the fact his marker, Stephen King, was a friend. "The problem I had with Stephen, " he smiled, "is one I won't have with Brian." Thing is, they were friendly, off the field. McHugh and Scullion, like them, were Railway Cup and All Star veterans and noticed how often McGilligan and Molloy gravitated to one another.

Brian Murray noticed how before and after every game, they'd make a point of shaking hands. Between those handshakes though, it was war, and Breffni was their Flanders.

"It got so bad, " Martin Shovlin would tell Damien Dowds and Donal Campbell in Sams for the Hills: Donegal's All Ireland Odyssey, "McGilligan stood in the middle of the field, took off his gloves and said, 'Alright, Anthony, me and you.'" Whatever about Molloy, Donegal shaded that battle and went on to contest the league final. "Looking back, " says McHugh, "we should have forgotten about the league that year because we were an ageing team.

But we were just having so much fun, playing games in places like Longford and Carlow after being out 'til five in the morning, while there was no way we were going to back down to Derry that day."

Derry had resolved to never back down either. "Training leading up to that Ulster final was unreal, " says Scullion. "Two men went fisticuffs and the wee man himself [Coleman] came running on. One of them turned round, 'Were we not told to fight for our place?' Coleman did that wee snigger of his and dandered off with that wee dander of his."

Scullion had his own battle in those weeks. In a league game in Drogheda he broke his ankle, leaving him on crutches.

"The week before the Down game, the wee man said to me, 'Well, what do you think, boy?' And I said, 'I'll go for it if you go for it!' And he says, 'Well, I'm going for it! I want you in there.' I lasted 10 minutes in Newry. I went down to pick up a ball and I fell on my f****n' mouth and nose. I swung a boot at the ball, it trickled to Mickey Linden and he kicked it over the bar. I looked up and saw someone warming up along the line. Derry went on to hammer Down but afterwards I was disgusted. The wee man came over. 'Scully, you have four weeks to get right for Monaghan.'" Scullion wasn't one for the sport sciences. He didn't do weights ("Many's the day I lifted and put in them big brutes of road curbs myself; if you do that, you don't need weights"); didn't do stretching ("[Dermot] McNicholl was really into it - Jesus, he would be down on the floor in a ball before a game, like a hedgehog - but I never stretched in my life - and I'm paying for it now"); didn't believe in "them boys for the head" (I can't remember a thing Craig Mahoney ever said. Coleman might have had him going to certain players but he never came to me. I don't think I needed him, to be quite honest"). The only way he knew was to grit the teeth.

"I'll tell you this, and I'm not telling a lie, any night Derry weren't training that month I went to Dean McGlinchey Park [Ballinascreen's local pitch] and ran round it lap after lap after lap. The doctor gave me this bandage and to this day, if I play a bit of fun football, I still have to wear a strap around that ankle. And he said to me, 'Tony, you have to run the pain out - keep going.' After a while the ankle would warm up and the pain would go out of it, but the first four laps out every night was a killer!"

Nothing was going to stop him winning that Ulster and All Ireland.

He takes umbrage with any Donegal supporter who questions whether Derry would have won that 1993 Ulster final if it hadn't been played in those monsoon conditions. "Sun, snow, rain, hurricanes - we were going to win that game!"

Across the table, McHugh nods.

"Derry were the hungrier and fresher team, just as we had been the year before. But I remember John Joe Doherty winning a ball 15 yards inside the line and he slid out over the line. I was captain that day and I'd said to [referee] Tommy McDermott going up for the toss, 'This game should not be played.' It didn't affect the outcome but football lost out. You were talking about the 1992 All Ireland champions against the 1993 All Ireland champions. The following year the 1993 champions [Derry] and the 1994 [Down] produced the greatest game of the year. Maybe we could have as well. I would always liked to have seen the two teams on a good day, 15 against 15 and a good referee just letting the two of us at it."

Both teams broke up soon after that, even if they would clash in a couple of league finals in the middle of the decade. At the end of '94 McEniff stepped down. That same year Coleman was forced out. In a way neither county has fully recovered from those dark months and in some quarters, some have never forgotten. Scullion noticed how recently Joe Brolly resurrected the fact that Scullion was the first senior player to return and play for Mickey Moran.

"Joe described me as a blackleg. I laughed it off, I'd take anything Joe says with a pinch of salt, but I tell you one thing - I'm very proud that I never refused the Derry jersey. I wasn't going to say no to Mickey Moran, I wasn't going to say no to nobody!

"I was playing for my county, whoever was in charge. I've done everything I could to get my second All Ireland medal and if Joe thinks he did everything to get it and can live with it, then I can live with it."

To the end he remained that backward wee boy with those holed socks that day in Bellaghy.

Today 30 other Derry men will put on that jersey to face Donegal in the first box office face-off of the summer. It won't be open football, he reckons. "I can see a lot of bodies working hard, getting tackles in, a lot of breaking ball, bodies around the ball. A man or two might even walk."

He hopes though today's soldiers will share the same bond with their adversaries like his generation do now. The year before last he was up in Noel Hegarty's club and stayed in John Joe Doherty's house. McEniff and himself team up to coach the Ulster Railway Cup team, not just Nell's. Two years ago those Donegal and Derry players from '92 and '93 played a charity game in Fanad and there was over 5,000 at it.

For McHugh, the respect is mutual. He notices how all the Derry lads, just like their Donegal counterparts, have given back to the game. "Enda Gormley is travelling down from Belfast to train his club under-14 team. I said to him, 'Have you a brother on the team or something?' He says, 'No.  But sure they're my own club.'" For all their differences, they shared and still share a passion, be they from the Glen or from the hills.

Because in a way, they all came from the rushes.