DUBLIN may be coming to Ballybofey with all their top guns, but Donegal team manager Rory Gallagher still believes his young side can keep up an attacking game.
And he hinted that Tir Chonaill would not necessarily be reverting to their trademark blanket defence for the visit of Jim Gavin's all conquering boys in Blue.
In a sense there was never a better time to catch the All-Ireland champions as feisty Tyrone showed last week, as Jim Gavin's men are a bit behind Donegal in the preparation.
The Red Hands had every chance of beating Dublin in their own back yard, but Mickey Harte's men are a few years ahead of Gallagher's young squad in terms of development.
But the Fermanagh native has has been buoyed by a narrow but priceless one point victory over fellow potential strugglers Roscommon.
"Any team that plays Dublin end up defending quite a bit.
"Kerry were quite defensive in a semi-final last year despite conceding 22 points.
"We have to adapt on different days and our big focus is about new players and playing to our strengths.
"Our strengths are attacking.
"We are pleased with our scoring return, but we have conceded too much and we rode our luck. It won't change too much just because it's Dublin"
But Gallagher is deeply concerned at the fact this young side has already leaked four goals as the League's top scorer.
Conversely, Donegal has also conceded more scores than any other county in this cutthroat Division.
"Conceding two goals a match isn't an option at the level we're operating. It is very difficult to claw that back.
"I expected us to be not as tight, but teams have got in too easy for our liking.
"We defended quite well against Roscommon, but they got in far too easily for chances. We have to work on that.
"It's important to win and build on our display. "Every day is different. Every week in the League, teams have different motivations.
But he does not underestimate the enormity of the Dublin challenge.
"We see this as another building block. We know it will take a hell of a lot of improvement to beat Dublin.
"The Dubs will be behind the majority of other counties, naturally, with being All-Ireland champions, in terms of what they're doing, but they have such competition in their squad and they have more than anyone.
"The new players coming in keep the others on their toes.
"They're on a brilliant run, but we just have to look at our own display.
"We played well enough to win the game in Roscommon relatively comfortably, rather than having to win it by a late point.
"We were very disappointed with the two goals that we conceded and we have to cut out those silly errors"
And Donegal now faces a more long- term problem around the middle with this week's departure of the iconic Neil Gallagher.
"We knew it was less likely than likely to happen, having missed a full year (his departure)
"We have been aware of that.
"We improved the last day and we have said that Jason McGee is a top quality player and we'll give him that exposure.
"We will work away with what we have. We did better on our own kick-outs and we have to adapt our game".
But Donegal is certainly not short of big men to compete for possession around the middle third
"No definitely not, they mightn't have the experience or muscle that other teams have yet, but we do have tall midfield type players.
"We are reasonably well off there, but we've got to invest in them now over a period of time.
"When the Sigerson Cup was on, we had an awful lot of players splitting their time between two parties, but now that that's finished, we'll get much more of an opportunity to see the lads in training and try to develop them."
And he hinted that Martin McElhinney might be a ready- made replacement for Gallagher.
"We've taken a long-term view of Martin and that's why we didn't rush him back for the first couple of games.
"We've got his back right and tried to get a volume of training into him. He's in fairly good nick and has been working away in the gym.
"He's a big player for us and he has played mainly a mixture of midfield and centre half-forward over the last number of years.
"He's definitely a player that we feel will give us huge options in the middle of the park and that will be crucial".
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