Captain Darragh Browne hoping it’s third time lucky for Carndonagh

Carndonagh are into their third Junior ‘A’ final in four years, and captain Darragh Browne is hoping to finally get his hands on the Dr McCloskey Cup as they face Letterkenny Gaels.

Last year’s all-Inishowen derby saw them trail by nine to Naomh Pádraig after just 15 minutes, and they were twelve down at the break.

It was a painful defeat for the side and the second in three years as they lost to Saturday’s opponents in the 2022 final by 0-12 to 0-10.

The Gaels spent two years in the Intermediate Championship before being relegated last year, and they have started hitting form at a good time as they disposed of Naomh Bríd in the semi-final after extra-time, with Conor Browne hitting three goals in the 5-14 to 2-19 win in Killygordon.

But Browne and co. are determined to try and right the wrongs of the past couple of years in O’Donnell Park this Saturday (throw-in 4pm).

“We know what to expect on the day now, and even with small things like the preparation on the day, we don’t have to think about all of that.

“It’s on us as players to put in a performance this time around because last year we were very unhappy.

“It was a really poor start, and it was hard to recover then against that wind, whereas the year before we got a slightly better start and we had been ahead, but it was a really tight game and obviously it was really disappointing to lose both, so we’re looking to put that right this time round.

“We set out at the start of the season to get back to this stage. There is a lot of hurt from losing out at this stage last year and also from a couple of years before against the Gaels, so it’s good to be back and it’s where we aimed to get back to.”

Carndonagh will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of last year's winners, Naomh Pádraig, as they had a solid Division 2 campaign, which helped them push on to win the Junior ‘A’.

Michael O’Donnell’s men finished seventh in the second tier, finishing ahead of newly crowned Intermediate champions Naomh Columba, along with Killybegs and St Naul’s, who participated in the Senior Championship this year.

And with county star Conor O’Donnell coming back in for the championship, they have been boosted further by his return.

“It’s been a good level of football, we played a lot of new teams but on the other hand, we haven’t played a lot of the teams that we have in this championship, and we haven’t got a lot of video on them.

“So we were kind of going into the unknown in the championship.

“It’s been a long time since the league, and I suppose you are only as good as your last game.

And Carndonagh’s last game was the semi-final against St Mary’s, Convoy as they won by 1-14 to 1-11.

It was looking like it would be a convincing win for the Foden men, as they were nine clear with 50 minutes gone, before Convoy hit 1-4 to put the pressure on.

But they held out and hit the final point to see their way into the final, although captain Browne was less than pleased with how the game ended.

“We wouldn’t have been too happy with our last game, and we’ll look to put in a performance the next day.

“You don’t set out to play badly, but there is a lot we need to be working on from the semi for this final.

“But it is good to know what we need to do over the next couple of weeks, and we need to knuckle down and train well.”