MAC'S VIEW: St Eunan’s will have to pull up their socks to beat Glenties

We are moving towards the conclusion of football in Donegal and we had a good weekend of action last weekend with the four quarter-finals in the senior championship and the semi-finals in the intermediate and junior.

It was maybe not a shock, but a surprise that MacCumhaill’s got the better of Glenswilly, in what, by all accounts, was a very open game of football. But fair play to MacCumhaill’s, they have a very, very young side and are now through to the semi-finals. It is good to see a new name appearing and MacCumhaill’s have plenty of pedigree.

They also have Oisin Gallen performing well and that is a great help to any team. He has been the consistent individual performer of the championship so far and it is so good to see.

In the other quarter-final in Falcarragh, it was a surprising scoreline. It seems Ardara put it up to Gaoth Dobhair, who had started well. I see Neil McGee came on at half-time and that made a difference. It will make for an interesting county semi-final and there will be a big boost for one of the teams, getting to play in MacCumhaill Park on the big day.

I saw that Glenties had a purple patch in the middle of the second half against Kilcar but it looked as though Kilcar threw in the towel, which is surprising. Glenties are very hard to break down and they limited Kilcar to long range efforts. But I thought Kilcar would have given them a much better game. But then again Glenties are a strong, physical side and that is something that Kilcar can’t match at the moment.

The quarter-final between St Eunan’s and Aodh Ruadh wasn’t one for the purists. Aodh Ruadh’s problem is scoring, getting only seven scores to St Eunan’s 14. The Ballyshannon side lack a marquee forward and that is something that doesn’t come out of the blue.

St Eunan’s were passive in the first half and they will need to improve for this weekend. The arrival of Niall O’Donnell on the field made the difference but Aodh Ruadh had chances to be further ahead at half-time.  The O’Donnell boys are good footballers though.

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Looking ahead to this weekend and the two semi-finals. Based on current form, it’s hard to see St Eunan’s beating Glenties. They have the players and the panel and plenty of football ability, but that Glenties side know how to win.

St Eunan’s will have to play better than they did or they will be put to the sword. But it should make for a very good semi-final.

The other semi-final between MacCumhaill’s and Gaoth Dobhair is just as attractive and should attract plenty of interest, especially with the way Oisin Gallen is playing at the moment. If Neil McGee and Michael Carroll are back, I expect that Gaoth Dobhair might have enough to win. They also have Kieran Gillespie back and he is county material.

The Intermediate championship semi-finals were played at the weekend with Malin prevailing after extra-time against Fanad Gaels. Fair play to Downings on getting over Termon, who we all fancied to win the championship outright. Downings were well beaten by Termon in the group stages, but they stuck at it. Termon were the favourites but it just shows that you have to do it on the field.

But again it goes to show that the Intermediate Championship in  Donegal is the best championship by far. Any one of the teams involved were capable of beating each other and of winning the competition.

With all the action that has taken place, there are only a few games left now for Jim McGuinness to throw his eye over. The time can become very short and we will be looking forward to getting back supporting Donegal in January. That is not that long away. I’m told that Jim has missed very few games so hopefully we will have a fit squad ready for action.

It was disappointing to hear that another member of the squad, Caolan McColgan, has required surgery for a hamstring injury. That makes it three having that operation within the year after Patrick McBrearty and Michael Langan. It begs the question if there is an issue with the training methods to have three such injuries in the same year.

I remember we had a bad year with hamstrings back in 1984 when we lost Michael Lafferty, Martin McHugh and Paul McGettigan in a matter of a couple of weeks before going to Armagh and losing by a point. There was no back door then.

And talking of championship, I hear the draw will be made in a couple of weeks' time. I have this funny notion with Mickey Harte now in Derry, that Derry, Donegal and Tyrone will be in the same half of the draw.

Congratulations to Na Rossa and Moville on making it through to the final of the Junior Championship with wins over Convoy and Naomh Padraig, Muff at the weekend. Fair play to Declan Bonner, he seems to have organised Na Rossa well and they have a small pick. Adrian Hanlon being back from injury seemed to help and he is a good player.

Finally, congratulations to our neighbours, Melvin Gaels, on reaching the Leitrim Intermediate final at the weekend. Also there will be huge interest in the Sligo semi-final this weekend when St Molaise Gaels from Cliffoney-Grange take on their neighbours Drumcliffe-Rosses Point in Markievicz Park on Saturday. Our All-Ireland winning goalkeeper, Paul Durcan, will be between the posts for Drumcliffe.

Brian McEniff was in conversation with Peter Campbell