Donegal minors need to bounce back from Derry defeat - Brendan Kilcoyne

Already quarter-final bound Donegal will be playing to restore confidence when they face Monaghan in the Ulster MFC on Saturday, in St Tiernach’s Park, in Clones.(throw-in, 1pm).

The Farney lads, just like Donegal, are also into the last eight following wins over both Down and Fermanagh.

So the prize for the winners at the weekend is to finish second to Derry in the group and face Armagh, who finished fourth in group B, in the quarter-finals next weekend.

The losers of Saturday’s tie will go toe to toe with the third placed team in group B, Cavan, for a place in the last eight of the championship.

But after last weekend’s 3-12 to 0-6 defeat to Derry, in Ballybofey, Luke Barrett’s boys probably have a little more to prove than the Farney boys.

“After the poor showing against Derry, we are expecting a much better performance from the lads this weekend,” said Brendan Kilcoyne, who assists Barrett on the sideline.

“We did not play well and they are much better than they showed last weekend.

“I acknowledge Derry are a good side and the best team we played all year but I do believe we are much closer to them than we showed last Saturday.

“I don’t know if it was a fact that we had already qualified for the quarter final or was the big win over Down six days earlier a factor. It was close enough in the early exchanges and it was 0-4 to 0-3, in favour of Derry after 20 minutes.

“But they scored two goals before half-time and we just didn’t play at all in the second half, which was disappointing. I’m expecting a big performance on Saturday. We need to see a big performance.”

But the former Yeats County captain is not expecting anything easy against Monaghan.

“Like ourselves, they beat Down and Fermanagh and lost to Derry. Monaghan have been doing well at minor level in the last few years.

“So it is not going to be easy. The most important thing is we get a good performance and get back on track.

“We had been playing well ahead of last weekend and we need to rediscover that form again. The last thing you would want is to be going into a quarter final on the back of two defeats.”

Donegal were back on the training ground on Monday evening and they were due to train again last night (Wednesday). And with the exception of John James Sweeney, who tweaked his hamstring against Derry and is out of the game, they have no other injuries to report.