ULSTER rivals Donegal and Armagh meet again in yet another intriguing tussle with the stakes as high as ever as they prepare to do battle for a place in an All-Ireland senior semi-final.
The sides last met in the National League Division Two final, which Armagh won convincingly at Parnell Park in May.
Since then, however, it has been Donegal who have made the rest of the country sit up and take note, just as Armagh did 12 months ago.
They won their first Ulster senior crown, convincingly defeating Monaghan in last month’s decider, while 2014 champion Armagh regrouped from their provincial semi-final loss to the Farney county, to see off Laois and Westmeath in the qualifiers.
If Davy McLaughlin’s Donegal side produce a performance to match the one that saw them beat Monaghan by five points in Clones just four weeks ago, it might be that Armagh will struggle to match their opponents.
The Orchard county have put in the performances they needed to win their last couple of games but James Daly’s side will need to up the ante considerably if they are to halt the Donegal steamtrain.
However, the fact Armagh know they can beat them, and have already managed it this season, puts them in a good place to make the semi-finals for a second successive year.
Both side possess hot-shot forwards. Geraldine McLaughlin, is in the words of her captain Katy Herron “good to go on Saturday”, after a knee injury scare, while Donegal also have Yvonne McMonagle and Amber Barrett to call upon. Aimee Mackin, Fionnuala McKenna and Caroline O’Hanlon provide much of Armagh’s firepower, but the defences will hold the key to success.
However, while Herron acknowledges that the defences will have a significant part to play, a team performance, like the one they produced against Monaghan, is needed and this game presents a chance for Donegal to right some wrongs after what they still look on as a disappointing league final performance.
“We were very disappointed with our performance on league final day and we didn’t express our ability to compete at this level, so we will be hoping to right the many wrongs we had that day and show our true potential,” said the midfielder.
“Both teams have a very skilful and threatening bunch of forwards to deal with so it may well be that the better defence will determine the result, but a solid team performance will be needed from us to shake off Armagh.”
Armagh are hoping that one of their most important players Sinéad McCleary is fit to take her place at centre half-back. She has faced a race against the clock having suffered a recurrence of the ankle injury that kept her out of that Division Two final.
Armagh boss James Daly said the character his side showed against Westmeath when the going got tough early in the second half was crucial in them turning the game back in their favour but warned that they need to be much better tomorrow.
“You find out a wee bit of character and there were a few girls who really stepped up against Westmeath,” he said.
“We are back to where we wanted to be and we have two games under our belt so we might be a bit more battle-hardened. We know how good Donegal is and we have to play better than we did against Westmeath.”
