Football

Donegal minors must show strong hand to advance past Cavan in Breffni Park

Electric Ireland Ulster Minor Football Championship quarter-final: Cavan v Donegal

Donegal minors make the long trip to Kingspan Breffni Park to take on Cavan with a place in the Ulster semi-finals at stake.

Gary Duffy’s bounding boys should be going with a fair degree of confidence after their thrilling victory over Armagh in Ballybofey last Saturday.

It took a man-of-the-match display from Johnny McGroddy and two cracking second-half goals from Shane Monaghan, a nephew of the great Brendan Devenney, to carve out that hard-earned victory.

But Donegal showed loads of character as they twice recovered from sucker punch Armagh goals to come back and get the result - and they also lost the influential Senan Rooney to injury just before the break.

The last time these sides met, Donegal had a fairly easy 3-13 to 0-8 win in Ballybofey.

Monaghan, Eoin Martin and Matthew Coyle grabbed the goals while McGroddy weighed in with three points in a somewhat experimental line up.

But Donegal will need to have a stronger hand for the trip to Breffni, against a side that gave Derry quite a battle before going under last weekend.

“It was good to get the win over Armagh in a physical battle, but Cavan will give us a big challenge,'' said Duffy.

“Caoimhin McGovern and Daryl McGurren are quality players on the 40 and at full-forward so they will need to be watched.

“We beat them earlier in the League but the score line was a bit flattering.

“Cavan are at home and that will make them more confident, so we will need to be fully prepared”.

Home advantage is also a major plus for the Breffni boys in a football mad county.

So, Donegal will need to be prepared for a battle.

Tir Conaill has an exceptionally strong spine of players starting with keeper Daithi Roberts, who is also a pretty accurate marksman.

Kieran Tobin and Jack Gallagher are solid defensive anchors while Kealan Dunleavy and Eoin Dowling are a commanding and towering midfield.

Dowling had an imperious final quarter against Armagh which was a big factor in his county’s victory.

Eoin De Burca and Carlos O’Reilly are also explosive players who are capable of turning a match in a heart beat.

Duffy is very unlikely to have Senan Rooney who had to go off injured against Armagh: “He has strained his hamstring and is very doubtful at present.”

Opponents Cavan will be relying heavily on the multi-talented Caoimhin McGovern.

He is well supported by Jack Tully, who struck a goal against Derry, marksman Daryl McGurren, Colin McKiernan and Philip Smyth.

Cavan will be relishing another chance against Donegal, as they feel they did not do themselves justice in Ballybofey.

But, much of their play revolves around McGovern which could also be their Achilles heel.

And if Donegal can limit his huge influence, then they could be well on their way to victory.

On balance Tir Conaill look to be the much stronger outfit.

They are physically powerful in all the right places and have an exceptionally gifted scoring forward lime that has not yet shown its true potential.

Cavan could make things awkward for long periods, but Donegal’s greater fire-power should see them through fairly comfortably.