Dungloe and Buncrana difficult to call ahead of U-21 B final 

Dungloe and Buncrana are chasing silverware when they go head to head in Saturday’s Michael Murphy Sports U-21 B final in O’Donnell Park (Throw-in, 1 pm).

For the men from the Rosses, it is new ground and a first ever U-21 decider - in either the A or B championship.

Buncrana U-21s

Buncrana though have reached the final once before and that was in the inaugural year of the B competition, back in 1992. 

Dungloe, who have dropped down from the U-21 A for the first time ever, go into the weekend’s showdown off the back of an unbeaten run of four wins and one draw. 

The Robert Wehrley managed side defeated Gaeil Fhánada and Glenfin away and drew with Kilcar in Rosses Park in the group stages. 

They defeated Glenfin, for a second time, in the quarter-final and last weekend overcame Naomh Padraig, Uisce Chaoin, by the minimum margin in a high-octane semi-final.

“It is great to be looking forward to the final given that we have not played all that well,” says the Dungloe boss.

“Our best performance was against Glenfin in the quarter-final and we only played anywhere near what we are capable of in the last ten minutes, against Muff, last weekend.  

“I suppose it is good in a way that we have reached the final without performing to our best. I believe we can play much better and we are going to have to. 

“Buncrana are a very strong side and they have won all their games by big margins while we have won by a point or two and no more”.

Buncrana manager Oisin O’Flaherty is wary of Dungloe and the challenge they are going to pose.  

"As a club, we don’t have the best of records against Dungloe. I’ve played against them at senior level several times and I have yet to win against them.

“Dungloe minors beat our minors six weeks ago in the Scarvey, in the championship. 

“They went on to win it and I’d say they have a fair few of that team on the U-21 side so we are under no illusion of the challenge we face.”

But O’Flaherty, who still lines out for the club's seniors, feels his charges are a decent side too and they have a good mix of senior players and a number of good young lads just out of minor. 

Oisin Crawford, Sean Doherty, Sean McLaughlin, Michael Bernard McLaughlin and Kevin Jordan are lads with senior experience in the Buncrana lineup.

Dylan Mulholland, Billy Duffy, Aaron Cleary and Andrew Davidson are just up from minor while Davidson, a highly rated prospect in Buncrana, is still a minor. 

Doherty and Crawford played county minor and U-21 and Dylan Mulholland was on last year’s county minor team. 

Wehrley also boasts a good mix of seniors and emerging minors including a number of players from this season’s Division 2 minor championship winners. 

Daire Gallagher, Ryan Brennan, Aaron Ward and Karl McGee are regular seniors while Jordan Saville and Ronan Gallagher have also featured during the course of the season just gone by for Dessie Gallagher’s senior team.