Donegal meet neighbours Leitrim in LGFA All-Ireland relegation shoot-out

It hasn’t been an easy run so far in the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Senior Football Championship for Donegal, but they have a final chance to save their senior status this weekend against Leitrim.

James Daly’s side were beaten by Armagh in the relegation semi-final at the weekend, with the Ulster champions winning by 0-15 to 0-5.

It was a repeat of the Ulster final, when Donegal lost out by 3-9 to 0-7, putting them in a group with Connacht champions Galway and Tipperary.

Defeats in both games left them in a relegation semi-final for the second consecutive year.

Last season, the Donegal side had to fight for their safety and did so successfully, beating Kildare in the semi-final stage at Breffni Park.

However, this time they will meet their neighbours in a straight shoot-out in Kilcoyne Park in Tubbercurry (throw-in 2pm), with the winners staying up and the losers being relegated to Intermediate status.

Leitrim lost out to Connacht rivals Mayo by 2-14 to 0-13 on Saturday and will be looking to avoid a swift return to the second tier, having only achieved promotion last year, beating Tyrone in the final.

It will be a local derby and we did say to the girls that we just need to win a game of football, whether it was this weekend or next,” assistant manager Bernard McGeehan said after the defeat to Armagh, upon learning their opponents for this Saturday.

“And if we win next weekend, then it is mission accomplished. We would have preferred to get it done now (against Armagh) but we didn’t.

“Leitrim won’t be an easy task, they won the Intermediate title last year and were very impressive in doing so and they’ll be looking to hold onto their Senior status the same way that we will be.

“Whoever performs on the day will probably be who stays up, so there’s the challenge in that but we’re still within the territory of achieving what our targets were for the year, which was consolidating our senior status with the group we have, then it will have been a half decent year.”

Having been in the Senior Championship since winning the Intermediate title in 2010 and been above Leitrim in the National League, it’s been over a decade since the pair met in a competitive environment, although they did meet recently.

“We played them in a challenge game about two months ago but we wouldn’t know any of them. They are two teams that haven’t really crossed paths and I don’t remember Donegal ever playing Leitrim in my memory in a competitive game.

“It makes it fresh and interesting but whoever wins will get to stay up and whoever doesn’t, then that is their level to go down to Intermediate.

“But we’ll have a positive week of training and go and face the challenge and, if we perform, then hopefully we can get over the line.”