Termon looking to bring momentum into Division 1 final

After a convincing win over Buncrana, Termon confirmed their spot in the Division 1 final with a game to spare.

A first year back in Division 1, the Burn Road men have seven wins and four draws so far in the league.

It wasn’t a position they expected to find themselves in, but they have been able to continue that run of momentum through the season.

“From the start of the year, we wanted to put away the tag that Termon are a bit of a yo-yo team,” manager Caolan McDaid told DonegalLive.

“I think we’ve went up five times in the last 15 years and we’ve almost come straight back down.

“We were looking at just picking up points from that first three to five block of games in the league.

“And we did that and won five from five so that bit of momentum and confidence or self-belief, we could see it in training week in, week out, and that got us here.

“We’ve picked up a couple of draws, but you get that, I think we drew three in a row after the first five and if we had lost one of those, then we could easily have went on a losing streak.

We came away from some of those draws where we didn’t know if it was a point gained or a point lost so we’re just happy we could add the points to the board.”

Termon have had a fairly healthy squad all season, and their reserves have lost just once, showing the depth they have.

The seniors also lost only once, in the All-Ireland Gaeltacht final to Bhulf Tón in Rath Chairn at the start of June, which McDaid admitted stung, but they bounced back well from that.

And that schedule left them playing 17 competitive games in 16 weeks, which has tested the squad, but they had a well-deserved week off before their 4-16 to 0-9 win over Buncrana at the weekend.

The squad did lose Jamie Grant from last year’s panel as he transferred down to Ballymun Kickhams in Dublin, while Cian McMenamin has been injured for the majority of the season after getting hurt in the Ulster Under-20 final.

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Bobby McGettigan and Enda McCormick are also big players for the Burn Road men who have been sidelined, but McDaid is hopeful to have those injuries cleared up for their first venture back in the Senior Championship.

But before that, they have a final league game against Glenswilly before the league final.

Having come up via the play-offs last year, there’s a chance they could meet another fellow promoted side, with Four Masters currently second.

A result for the Donegal Town men will guarantee them a top-two finish, although they have a tricky tie away to Gaoth Dobhair.

A loss for Four Masters would turn the focus to Davy Brennan Memorial Park, as Naomh Conaill host St Eunan’s.

Both sides are two points behind second spot, and a St Eunan’s win would move them above Four Masters on head-to-head.

“Bobby has missed a lot of games for us, and Enda had a medical issue, and he’s only played a handful of games, and we haven’t had Cian all year.

“So there are three boys we’ll want back for the championship and we’ll do our very best to get them back.

“It’s hard to know because momentum is hard to beat, and it would be nice to go through the league unbeaten because nobody likes losing.

“But we’ll get ready for the league final in two weeks for whoever it’s against.”