St Mary’s, Convoy and Letterkenny Gaels fancied to make Junior A last four

It is do or die for four of the last six standing in the Donegal Junior A Championship this Saturday with the playing of two quarter finals.

The quartet in question are St Mary’s Convoy, Naomh Ultan, Letterkenny Gaels and Robert Emmets, the surprise team of the championship so far.

St Mary’s, Convoy, the second placed team behind Naomh Brid in group A at the end of those stages, are home to Naomh Ultan who finished third place in the league format.

Championship favourites Carndonagh topped group B with Letterkenny Gaels coming second and Naomh Ultan third. Naomh Brid and Carndonagh await the winners in the semi-finals.

St Mary’s, Convoy v Naomh Ultan
Saturday
Convoy, 2pm

St Mary’s, along with Carndonagh, are two Division Two ACFL teams in the junior championship.

And though St Mary’s did not win a game in the league, playing at a higher level has stood to them in the championship so far and they have chalked up big wins over Naomh Padraig, Lifford, Urris and Robert Emmets to win three of their four games in the group.

Their only defeat was at the hands of the inform Naomh Brid. They are once again managed by Laurence McMullan and in Anthony Browne, Corrie-lee Bogan, Ciaran Dolan and Niall Sweeney, they have match-winning forwards.

Naomh Ultan, who missed out on promotion from Division Three of the ACFL, go into Saturday’s game on the back of two wins and two defeats in the group stages. Those wins were against Moville and Naomh Colmcille.

They lost their first day out at home to Carndonagh and last weekend they suffered a heavy defeat away to Letterkenny Gaels.
Cian Kennedy and Patrick White are the go-to men for scores up front, while Jonathan Bach has been regularly among the scorers.

Consistency seems to be Naomh Utan’s weakness because on their day, they have the quality all over the field to be more than a match for any of the teams in the championship. Former player Aidan Duddy is the Naomh Ultan manager.

Letterkenny Gaels sent out a signal of intent with last weekend’s 19-point win over Naomh Ultan at the Glebe.

Ronan Frain and Shay Doherty scored two goals each and Paddy Doherty also hit the net in the 5-17 to 0-13 win over the men from Dunkineely.

Conor McBrearty topped the point scoring for the locals while Frain, Shay Doherty, Brian Diver, Diarmuid O Cathail and Jack Keys all also kicked points for the Aidy Glackin managed Gaels.

They won three of their four games in the group stages with the only defeat at the hands of championship favourites Carndonagh. As well as the win over Naomh Ultan, the ‘Gaels overcame Naomh Colmcille and Moville.

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It has been a good championship so far for Robert Emmets. Under former Donegal and Aodh Ruadh player John Duffy, who is in his first season at Emmet Park, they have qualified for the last six for the first time in years.

They did so on the back of wins over Pettigo, Naomh Pádraig, Lifford, and Urris which took them to six points and one of the two knockout places.

They go into Saturday’s game as the underdogs, but they have players in Conor McGettigan, a senior hurling championship winner with Setanta already this year, Jordan Tourish, Dylan McNamee, Sean Maguire and the Dalton brothers, Rory, Conor, Ciaran and Daniel, to ask questions of the ‘Gaels.