Football

Eoin McHugh delighted to finally make Ulster SFC debut

&nbsp;Donegal&rsquo;s Eoin McHugh (right) believes Sunday&rsquo;s clash with Fermanagh showed him the step up in intensity from League to Championship <br />Picture by Colm O&rsquo;Reilly
 Donegal’s Eoin McHugh (right) believes Sunday’s clash with Fermanagh showed him the step up in intensity from League to Championship
Picture by Colm O’Reilly
 Donegal’s Eoin McHugh (right) believes Sunday’s clash with Fermanagh showed him the step up in intensity from League to Championship
Picture by Colm O’Reilly

HE DIDN’T quite have to wait as long as his father for his Ulster Championship bow, but it still felt that Sunday was an age in the making for Eoin McHugh.

Against Fermanagh, he became the latest in the Kilcar dynasty to represent Donegal in the Ulster Championship, kicking two points in the 2-12 to 0-11 win over Fermanagh.

As he buzzed about Ballybofey, there was certainly the sense of the chip-off-the-old-block about him and a wonderful score, lashed over from the stand side, was one of the game’s highlights.

It wasn’t a bad way to cap an excellent Championship debut.

“It was just a nice atmosphere to play in and to make your debut,” McHugh said.

“It’s a new type of intensity. There was savage intensity. It’s a serious step up from the League. It’s completely different.

“The crowd, my whole head was busting with the crowd. I’d never experienced the likes of that before.”

Last year, McHugh was tipped to make the breakthrough, but a viral infection that had him hospitalised in the spring kept him in the background when it came to the summer selections.

Earlier this year, former Donegal star Kevin Cassidy said he saw ‘something special’ about McHugh, noting that ‘he always plays with his head up and he can see things opening up in front of him.’.

Many Donegal supporters perhaps didn’t even realise that Sunday’s game was his first in Championship football.

 They’ve known about his talents for some time, but it’s only now that he’s got his chance.

A son of James McHugh, Eoin is a cousin of Donegal team-mates Mark and Ryan McHugh. James McHugh was 25 before he got the Donegal call-up by Tom Connaghan in 1989 and it was 1990 before he was handed a Championship start by Brian McEniff. For 21-year-old Eoin, Sunday was something of a surreal experience.

He said: “I watched a lot of these boys winning Ulsters and All-Irelands and now the likes of Michael Murphy and Frank McGlynn are passing the ball to me in these games.”

Donegal scored 2-8 of their total in the first and third quarters on Sunday with Odhrán Mac Niallais netting both of the goals.

McHugh said: “The plan was to go out and blow them away early and when Odhran got the goal it put us four up and we were in control.

“I felt we had them rattled at that stage. But we sat back after the goal and allowed them back into the game. That happens sometimes in games with players picking up injuries and sending offs.

“They were a good team and the last few Ulster Championship games have been walkovers, but that didn’t feel like a walkover to me. “It was a tight game especially the end to the first half and we were in bother going into the dressing room at half-time.”

Donegal lost totemic full-back Neil McGee to a red card in first half injury time and it took a penalty save by Mark Anthony McGinley from Sean Quigley to keep them in front at the break.

In the dressing room, Gallagher beckoned his men to ‘get the finger out, we’re in trouble here lads’ and the response was emphatic with Donegal gaining control in the second half.

In a rejig, McHugh went back to half-back having been stationed in the forwards during the first half. He said: “That meant I had to work that extra bit harder.

“It wasn’t easy but we stuck to the gameplan and Odhrán’s second goal did seal it. It was a great goal. “Thankfully we dug deep in the second half with only 14 men it was a brilliant team effort in the second half and it was great to be part of it.”