The girls really stepped up - Donegal ladies captain Róisín Rodgers

Donegal ladies captain Róisín Rodgers was full of praise for her side as they brought their A-game to secure the Division 2 title against Cavan in Clones.

In tough conditions, Donegal had to battle their table-topping opponents and the strong wind in the first half, but only trailed by two points at the break, and they soon levelled the game up in the second half before kicking on with goals from Mia Bennett and Katie Dowds to win by 2-7 to 0-8.

It’s a first title as captain for the Naomh Muire, Íochtar na Rosann star, and the youthful side has really brought it up a level this season, as proven by achieving promotion and capturing the title.

“It’s an incredible moment, there were a few rough patches in the game, and we didn’t know what way it was going to go, but if you told us back in December we’d be promoted to Division 1, and now we’re standing here with the Division 2 cup, it means a lot to us as a team and it shows that progress is being made.

“We really wanted to push on this year and see what we could do. We want to be playing competitive football in Division 1, Division 2 is as well, but it’s always nice to have that benchmark.”

Rodgers received a harsh yellow card on 38 minutes as Donegal were 0-5 to 0-4 behind, but by the time she came back on ten minutes later, they led by four points with the help of Bennett’s goal.

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“The girls really showed up, and even when I got sinbinned, they really stepped up, and it’s a credit to them. They’ve been putting in so much work since the start of December up until this point, and it really showed today when we were a player down.

“It was a super goal, when I got the yellow card I was just thinking of the worst case scenario and what have I done, but Mia came out of nowhere and got the goal which really set the tone of what we needed to do and credit to the girls, from one to 15 and the ones who came on and the other girls on the bench were shouting us on from mthe sideline, every single person there meant something to us.”

Donegal face Armagh and Tyrone in the Ulster Senior Championship towards the end of the month, but they will enjoy their success before getting the heads back down.

“We’ve the Ulster series coming up now, and we’re all looking forward to the challenge ahead, but for today, we’ll try and enjoy this!”