Barry Meehan believes St Eunan’s getting act together ahead of knockout stages

St Eunan’s manager Barry Meehan looks back on his side’s opening SFC group stage defeat to Kilcar as the jolt the champions needed to get them back in the mood.

Meehan was speaking last Saturday night, following St Eunan’s three-point win over neighbours Termon.

The Letterkenny outfit now gets ready to renew acquaintances with the Burn Road men in this weekend’s preliminary round quarter-final.

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“We bounced back well, and we are just happy to be where we are. I know we got players back, but the big difference from the Kilcar game is that we upped our intensity levels in a big way.

“We went into the Kilcar game in league mode. But as we all know championship is a different animal altogether.

“Looking back on the defeat, it was probably the kick up the backside we needed. We bounced back well against Aodh Ruadh in the next game.

We played well in the first half against St Nauls and dropped off a little in the second half.

“And we played well in Termon, especially against the wind in the first half, and we were only a point behind at half-time.

“I thought we did very well under the breaking ball and overall were very happy with the performance.

“Our defence was excellent. Caolan Ward went in at full-back in the second half and was very strong and played well.

"Kieran Tobin marshalled the defence from number six. Aaron Deeney did a great job on marking Daire McDaid. Anthony Gallagher came on and played well.

“They are all battling for places at training and we are in a very fortunate position that we have players of such calibre and they are knocking lumps out of each other every night.”

On his walking wounded of Niall O’Donnell, Darragh Mulgrew and Eoghan Dowling, the manager said all that will be evaluated ahead of that next outing at the Donegal GAA Centre on Saturday.

“Niall picked up a knock at training on Wednesday night. It is nothing too serious but we decided tonight not to play him for fear of doing more damage. But he should be fine for the next day.

“Darragh Mulgrew picked up an injury in the Kilcar game, but is back training again, and so is Eoghan Dowling.

“So hopefully they will be ready to come back in soon enough”.