Donegal and Armagh fight for TG4 LGFA Senior Championship status

Donegal, for the second year in a row, are fighting for their TG4 LGFA Senior Championship status when they face Armagh in a SFC relegation playoff today.

The game is in Stewartstown, Tyrone, with a 2pm throw-in and is a repeat of this season's Ulster final. Armagh are the back-to-back Ulster champions and Lidl Ladies Division One league runners-up.

They were also seen as one of the contenders for the championship. But they were held to a draw by Meath and defeated by Kildare, which means the Ulster champions are now in a relegation battle to save their senior championship status.
Donegal manager James Daly hails from Armagh and is a former Orchard County manager.

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“They were four points up with only minutes left against Meath in Navan, only for Meath to come back to draw the game,” said the Donegal boss. “Then Kildare turned them over by two points in the Athletic Grounds. They were short a number of players due to injury for the Kildare game. But I think there was also an element of complacency, and they got caught.

“It certainly has made our task of holding on to our status a good deal more difficult. Armagh have been one of the leading contenders for the championship and were seen as a contender again this year as well.”

Mayo, another traditionally strong county, meet Leitrim in the other relegation semi-final on Saturday in Tubbercurry. The two winners will save their status, while the two losing teams will have one more crack at redemption.

They will meet in the relegation final, with the losers making the drop to the Intermediate championship next season.
Donegal and Armagh have met already this year in the Ulster final, with Armagh emerging as comfortable 3-9 to 0-7 winners.
“We acknowledge we have a good bit of ground to make up from the Ulster final, " Daly added. "We conceded two early goals in the final, and that really knocked us back and we were chasing the game after that.

“We were 10 points down at half-time, but I thought we fought back well in the second half and at the end of the day it was 12 scores to seven. We have worked hard in the last few weeks since the Ulster final on styles of play, and I think we saw the fruits of that against Tipperary, the last day."

Since the provincial baptism of fire, Donegal have played two group games in the TG4 championship against Connacht champions Galway and Tipperary.

The Tribeswomen and last year’s beaten All-Ireland finalists were nine-point victors on a score of 1-11 to 1-2 in the first round, in Lifford. And the weekend before last, they went down to Tipperary, losing out by 0-11 to 1-6.

“I was not happy at the time with a number of calls that went against us in Tipperary, and I have looked at the DVD of the game a couple of times since and I haven’t changed my mind," Daly added. “But the reality is we only played for ten minutes in Tipperary and in that time scored 1-3 to come right back into the game and reduced the Tipperary lead to a point.”

Tipperary had led the game 0-10 to 0-3 at half-time. The Donegal manager acknowledges that his young and in transition team has a lot of ground to make up against the Orchard County.

“We are going to have to dust ourselves down and face the challenge head-on," he said. “We know Armagh are a good side. But they are where they are for a reason and we are going to have to take them on. We conceded two early goals in the Ulster final and were on the back foot after that.

“We cannot allow that to happen on Saturday, and if we can keep it tight and can stay in the game until the latter stages who knows what can happen. We definitely want to stay in the senior championship and the bid to achieve that begins on Saturday against Armagh.

“If we win on Saturday, our season is over and we will have retained our senior championship status. And if we lose, we will get another crack at survival next weekend against either Mayo or Leitrim.”

Donegal are without the injured pair of Aisling O’Neill and Julie Trearty, with Ulitah Boyle on the doubtful list.