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In answer to your question, i really dont know what now for Donegal.They have to hope for a relatively easy draw in the qualifiers, otherwise i think its curtains for another year.

Dunnion was planned to take the field but seemed to struggle in the warm up and was withdrawn.

Another year without the Anglo Celt Cup, 15 year drought now. Depressing, can't understand the lacklustre display, esp after the Armagh performance which was poor. And now facing into the qualifiers without our best forward, gotta hope we dont meet Armagh, Mayo, Meath from what we've seen so far.

you would think a primary requirement for a commentator would be able to recognise the players

following the usual pattern, pick a team for the press, and then decide later...

Could be any one from Sweeney/Wappa/Toye

apparently Toye has chickenpox, so an even stronger case for Sweeney starting.

Feeling confident, think Donegal will win by 4 to 6 pts. If Tyrone were full strength it would be 50/50.

Providing the hunger is there in Donegal, and Ive no reason to think it wont be, I think we hold all the aces.

Yeah Bonner would be a big loss, especially as Toye has been off form for a while now.

Hate to say it, but feeling v confident about Sunday. A more or less full strength Donegal against an injury ravaged Tyrone, and coming off a poor show against Armagh there should be a response... and if not, the bench is strong.

I'd like to see the following line out

1 Durkan

2 N McGee
3 Campbell
4 Lacey

5 McConigley
6 Monaghan
7 Dunnion

8 n Gallagher
9 Kevin cassidy

10 Roper
11 Bonner
12 Kavanagh

13 Devenney
14 Sweeney
15 McFadden

Thoughts on that team?

I'd like to see us use Sweeney in the Canavan role of a few years ago... play the 1st half, and bring him back on with 10 mins to go for a lift.

Adrian definitely deserves a start J70.  He seems to have put in a lot of effort last winter and judging by his point today and in the league final, he's itching to get back in the team.

I'm still wondering how we came away with a win today - but we've had so much disappointment v Armagh in recent years that I think we were due a break.

Donegal's forwards will need big improvement for the next day, but I doubt we will come up against as committed and tough defending for the rest of the year (unless we meet Armagh again!). So I think we have plenty of reasons to be optimistic over the next few mths. At least we had some great options to spring from the bench today (Devenney, Sweeney, Wappa) which will always lift the fans and the players.

Best for Donegal today I thought were McFadden (for the frees), Neil Gallagher, Durcan, and the defence as a whole played quite well I thought.  Awful were M Hegarty (not worth his place against the big teams), and not much better was Toye.

Thought the ref was a shambles, but bad for both teams. Armagh could complain particularly about McConagley not getting sent off, and the "free from where the ball lands" debacle.

I'm sure the Armagh team and supporters are sick tnt, they didnt deserve to lose, but if they keep playing like that they will have plenty to say in the latter stages.

Minor Latest Score

ESB Ulster Minor Football Championship

Donegal 0-05 0-04 Armagh

exciting full forward line. Normally we play with 2 full forwards, but that sounds like it could be 3 up top

According to the Indo

Devenney (stomach muscles), Roper (hamstring) and Neil McGee (dead leg) all took part in county training last Thursday, but the trio sat out a training match afterwards.

Insiders believe that Roper is the biggest doubt but say all three will be given a late fitness test, possibly not until the 11th hour, as manager Brian McIver does not want to risk exacerbating any of their injuries.


No word of Rory Kav, so presume he's raring to go.

2 More options for Donegal this summer...


Two familiar faces were back in training with the Donegal football panel last night in the shape of Stephen McDermott and Niall McCready. The squad went through their paces in Ballybofey fresh from a weekend break in Castlebar.

Aodh Ruadh's Niall McCready hasn't played under the new regime since Brian McIver took charge in the Autumn of 2005.

He has been in good form for his club Aodh Ruadh and registered a crucial goal from wing half-forward in the Ballyshannon men's club championship win over Ardara ten days ago.

McCready has played most of his county football at corner-back since bursting onto the scene in the mid-nineties.

Meanwhile, Stephen McDermott chipped in with 1-2 for Glenfin in their bank holiday defeat to Killybegs in Fintra and appears to have shaken off a long-running back injury. The midfielder was a peripheral figure for most of 2006 before having to opt-out of the panel this year.

Donegal manager, Brian McIver did emphasise that his core panel of players remains the same for the time being and that the two players are being added to the panel for training purposes and assesment.

Good article from http://tomssportingalmanac.blogspot.com/



Donegal: Sober Or Be Judged
Sunday evening, in the Abbey Hotel, Donegal Town. The Donegal senior football team, the elation of their victory in that afternoon's National League final still evident in giddy banter, are gathered with team management, friends and loved ones.

"Right lads, what yiz havin'?" pipes up a county board member, his shirt untucked and his face a battleground between happiness and fatigue.

"Club Orange for me," shouts Kevin Cassidy; "Just a pinta blackcurrant Seamus," adds Neil Gallagher, the captain. "Me 'n' all - blackcurrant," agrees ace marksman Colm McFadden.

"Jeez a cup of tae would hit the spot," posits old-hand Adrian Sweeney, to nods from fellow veterans Brendan Devenney and Brian Roper, "Aye drop of tea, Seamus; milk, no sugar, good man."

"Britvic 55"; "Cidona, please"; "Apple juice"; "Eh, Ballygowan please"; "Coke, Seamus".
Eyes turn to Eamonn McGee, the big Gweedoreman, whose languid, raking point from distance had put Donegal two clear in injury time. "Pint of Heineken please!"
Suddenly all is deadly silent. McGee's teammates stare at him viciously; supporters gathered at the bar turn their heads in the direction of the last order. A fat man telling a profane joke stops in his foul-mouthed tracks.
"Jeez only messin' lads - my usual Seamus: Miwadi orange!"

**********************

Reading the coverage of Donegal's participation in the National League Final often felt like leafing through a brewing industry trade journal. At other times, it seemed like extracts from a Shane McGowan biography had found their way into the sports pages. I haven't heared of such censorious scrutiny of young men's drinking habits since my time staggering home from school discos, munching Polo mints, attempting to evade parental sentry guards.

One can imagine the in-jokes and references to the matter in the Donegal camp at this stage; presumably the experience of having the sober gentlemen of the press documenting your alcoholic excesses provides a fertile ground for ironic humour.

Of course, if it's irony you're after, most of us are a bit guilty of playing the thin-lipped Presbyterian in our attitude to our amateur sporting heroes, while worshipping Dionysus on our own spare time.

In the days after the announcement of the GPA/GAA Joint Grants proposal, it seems only more likely that the idea of GAA players' off-pitch lives being subject to the same loose discipline as our own down-time will become even less plausible than it currently is. Until now, we have allowed ourselves to pour righteous indignation on county players with tendencies toward the occasional boozy bender because of our expectation of a return on an investment that was intangible: the emotional support of a county, the bolstering local pride an suchlike.

Now, with taxpayers money set to trickle into the pocketbooks of county stars, players who refuel unwisely will need more than a packet of Polo mints to escape the wrath of the cold eyed Mammies of public opinion.

******************

Here's hoping that the Donegal players had more than Miwadi to celebrate on Sunday evening; their achievement was a real and worthy one, deserving of being toasted and sufficient to circumvent any suggestion that League honours merit little acknowledgment.

Emerging as the only unbeaten team in all four divisions, reeling off a list of the vanquished that included Kerry, Tyrone, Mayo (twice), Dublin, Cork, Fermanagh and Kildare, Donegal's form so early in the year was almost unbelieveably free of the sort of teething troubles and preparatory problems that the League is supposed to be there to sort out.

Also pleasing was the cool-headed determination that they deployed to win so many of those games, especially the final. As injury time commenced in Croke Park on Sunday, there was a palpable sense of desire evident among the Donegal players, an indignant vow that, actually, this is our competition, thank you very much.

Maintaining that belief and feeling of superiority through the summer will be crucial - particularly with their bete noires, Armagh, awaiting on May 27th. For what is the decision to abandon focus and resolve and turn to the celebratory realm of booze but an acknowledgement of contentment at what has already been achieved, a self-reward at a goal attained.

If Donegal can switch the drive that they brought to their League campaign and direct it towards the Championship, they will be a force to be reckoned with.

And no-one will begrudge them a shandy afterwards.

Hey Mr C

Did the team come back to the Abbey with the cup last night? Have they stopped drinking yet ?