Noel McBride pleased as Dungloe secure first Division 1 win away to St Michael's

Dungloe manager Noel McBride hailed his side’s resilience after they claimed their first win back in Division 1 with a four-point victory over St Michael’s at the Bridge on Bank Holiday Monday.

The Rosses men came from a point down with 15 minutes remaining to run out 1-16 to 0-15 winners.

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“Any day you come away from the Bridge with a win is a good day as we have found out down here over the years,” said McBride, who has taken over from Dessie Gallagher this season.

“No matter at what level St Michaels are always hard to beat here. Dungloe had opened their campaign with a draw against Kilcar in Rosses Park and made a strong start here, hitting the first three points inside five minutes.

.”We put it to the boys all week that they needed to get a good start and to up the intensity, something we felt we lacked against Kilcar.

“In fairness they did start well and kicked three quick points. But St Michael’s came back at us and the game was level a number of times before we took the lead again before half-time but five of their six points were from frees.

“Maybe we pushed with aggression but even at that I thought a couple of their frees were soft enough.”

The sides remained evenly matched early in the second half, with Dungloe clinging to a narrow lead before Carlos O’Reilly brought St Michael’s level at 0-10 apiece.

Daniel McLaughlin then edged the hosts in front, but Dungloe responded in emphatic fashion. A scoring burst of 1-3 without reply in four minutes put them five clear heading into the closing stages.

“In fairness to the lads, any time we conceded a score they responded well. After they took the lead Shaun McGee scored a two point score, with his first touch after going on, to put us back in front and we added another point before Oisin Bonner scored the goal to put us five up.

“We also brought Damian McGowan on and he made a big impact. He won three high balls in a row in the middle of the field and gave us a launching pad.

“In fairness, I felt the goal was coming for a while, gaps were appearing and it put us in a good position.”

McBride was pleased with the return of three points from two games but acknowledged there is room for improvement.

“Yeah we are happy with the start but there is still a lot we have to work on. There were a lot of things we would not be happy with. I think out of all of their scores the bulk of them were from frees. They scored very little from play.

“Obviously we are not happy with that and it is something we are going to have to look at. But overall it is great to be back in Division 1.”

Dungloe were without a number of key players due to county commitments, including Mark Curran (seniors footballers), Aaron Neely (U-20s) and Conor Diver (senior hurlers), while Aaron Ward is sidelined through injury.

They are also missing Barry Curran, Ryan Connors and Ryan Greene, who are currently in Australia.

“We are in a sort of transition at present. We played two minors last week Chris O’Donnell and Danny McCready and the two of them started again today. Chris played the full game and Danny played 50 minutes.

“We have new faces and fresh blood coming into the team which is what you always want and it is all positive and we move on to next weekend and Termon.

“Termon are the league champions and have been the form team in the county in the last few seasons. They are the pace setters and we are looking forward to playing them.”