IT IS all about Sunday for Donegal’s embattled hurlers as they face a crucial home tie against Armagh in Letterkenny. Ardal McDermott’s luckless men will be hoping to get a badly-needed two points against an Orchard side who ran Down to two points last weekend.
Donegal were struck a cruel blow on the eve of last weekend’s narrow defeat to Mayo, when star midfielder Danny Cullen cried off with a hamstring injury. Cullen’s absence, allied to the loss of the vastly experienced Jamesie Donnelly and Enda McDermott, meant Donegal were facing a huge task against a Keith Higgins-inspired Mayo.
To add to their woes, they lost Christopher McDermott to two yellow cards early in the second-half. Yet despite the ill-luck, disappointed team captain Joe Boyle felt it was one that got away.
“I know we were missing the three boys who are vastly experienced and then we lost Christopher to two quick yellow cards, but we still felt we had a good enough team to come through," Boyle said.
“We also lost Justin McGee, but this was a match that we had really targeted to win. I suppose we really lost it in the first-half as we were very slow to settle, were just below par and Mayo piled on the points. Then we lost Christopher to two yellow cards, which made things even more difficult.
“But on reflection, it was always going to be very hard to win without Jamesie, Enda and Danny, who all have so much valuable experience. You can’t buy that kind of experience, which we badly needed when things became tight.”
Donegal trailed by 0-10 to 0-3 at the interval, and then came back very well after being reduced to 14-men early in the second-half. Classy Ciaran Matthewson and Kevin Campbell led the charge, but they were just not able to get the vital goal they needed for victory.
Instead, Mayo notched the crucial goal in the 50th minute: “I thought our full-backline was pretty solid and their goal was well set up by Keith Higgins, who is a great addition to them," Boyle added.
“We showed a lot of character to come back at them, but we will need it all against Armagh on Sunday.”
Last year, Ryan Gaffney, Declan Coulter and co really outmuscled Donegal in the Nicky Rackard Cup. Since then, Boyle and co have been beefing up for the considerable challenge presented by Sylvester McConnell’s men.
Gaffney and Coulter are great stickmen and Armagh were very unlucky to lose the Rackard Cup final to Roscommon last season, a very late goal denied them victory. More recently, they ran a fancied Down to a mere two points last week, a match they feel they could have won.
So Armagh will be coming to O’Donnell Park in a fairly confident frame of mind. For a determined skipper Boyle, nothing has changed: “We know the challenge Armagh will bring, they are big, physical, competitive and have some good marksmen as well.
“We have played them a good few times, so we are well aware of their capabilities. But this is our first match at home and it is one we feel we can win, despite the absentees.
“There is a great determination in this Donegal squad and we have worked really hard to prepare for a very tough year ahead. We did not really do ourselves justice last weekend and it was a pretty chastening learning experience. But we know that we must simply win on Sunday and that is what we plan to do.”
