Malin travel to Glenfin with their Division 1 status hanging by a thread

hey are rooted to the bottom of the table, two points adrift of their most recent opponents Buncrana and Kilcar, and their three year stay in the top tier seems to be coming to an end, but manager Paul Gallagher is hopeful that his Malin team can put in a performance against Glenfin that can propel them into the championship...come what may in the league.

“I don’t know whether it's possible [to escape relegation] at this stage, we’ve left it very late,” he told Donegal Live after last week’s pulsating 2-12 to 1-15 draw with Buncrana. “We had a lot of injuries during the year, and it disrupted us, but hopefully we’ve turned the corner and can get a bit of a run into the championship.”

Read more: Malin and Buncrana serve up a cracker at Connolly Park

There was a going for broke quality to that Buncrana match at Connolly Park that reminded observers of the cracking quarter-final the sides played out in the Intermediate championship last summer, but Gallagher, who is in his first year of senior management, is without many of the key men who lined out in black and amber that day through a combination of retirements and emigration.

Having spent many years managing the club’s minor and U21 sides, he is well-placed to guide Malin through the inevitable changing of the guard following the retirements of the likes of John Gerard McLaughlin, Matthew Byrne and Terence Doherty.

“There’s been a big change in our panel,” he acknowledged. “We played Buncrana in the championship last year, and a third of the team is gone.

“I’ve been involved at minor for the past seven or eight years, and coached most of the lads in coming through. I knew the heart that’s in them and what they can give.”

Becoming the senior manager was a natural progression for Gallagher, and he acknowledges that it’s been challenging.

“It's been a experience, and it’s definitely been challenging,” he said. “There is more work to it, and you have to put in more effort.

“And then there’s the new rules on top of that!”

Gaelic football has been transformed with the FRC’s new rules creating a more dynamic, chaotic game where fast, mobile players can shine and Malin have their fair share of them.

Last Thursday, Malin got a real boost from their subs bench with Oisin McGonagle, Sean O’Neill & Co contributing hugely to a frenetic finale where the lead changed hands several times before referee Pat Barrett called full time with the sides tied on the scoreboard.

“Oisin McGonagle has been away with work, so he’s just trying to get his fitness levels back up,” Gallagher said.

“We’ve a few boys carrying knocks, so we were holding off as close to the end as we could with them.

“We brought good power and pace into the last ten minutes. The way the game is now, you need to use your bench in and bring in fresh subs and you’re just hoping you can drive on.”

Malin will drive on into Glenfin on Sunday afternoon where the home side will wrap up their league campaign safely ensconced in mid-table, well away from the relegation zone.

Results elsewhere will probably seal Malin’s relegation fate, but after the disappointment of a home defeat to Kilcar a fortnight ago, the manager is hoping that they can turn in a similar performance to that they put in against Buncrana.

“Our performances are moving in the right direction,” he insisted. “Granted, we were very poor against Kilcar. We were just a bit flat and I’m not sure what was the cause of it. When we went behind, the boys heads just went down which isn’t like us.

“But the performance tonight [against Buncrana], I couldn’t fault the boys. It was night and day and it gave the crowd something to shout about.

“To a man, including the subs that came in, they really played on the front foot.

“You need to do that in Division 1 where there are no easy games.

“We’ll see where we are when the championship draw is made.

“For all you know, you could be playing Buncrana again first day out so it was important to lay down some kind of a marker.”

The draws for the Donegal club football championships will be made on 8 July and Malin, beaten finalists and semi-finalists in 2023 and 2024 respectively, will be plotting another good run in the Intermediate championship.