Donegal have to make home comforts count against Derry - Conor Gartland 

Donegal, fresh from their big opening Division 2B away round win over Wicklow last time out, are back in action on Saturday when they host Derry in O’Donnell Park (throw-in, 2.30pm).

Mickey McCann’s charges had 16 points to spare over the Garden County, on Sunday in Aughrim. 

Setanta ace Gerard Gilmore - who picked up the Hurler of the Year gong at the recent Donegal Sports Star Awards - posted a superb 1-9 in that 2-23 to 0-13 demolition job.

It was a dream start to the season for Donegal and their new captain, Conor Gartland. At just 20-years-old, Gartland is the youngest ever player to captain a Donegal senior GAA side, hurling or football. It’s early days but it seems like the Burt dual player is taking that responsibility in his stride.

“It is a great honour for myself, my family and the club,” said Gartland, who is a third-year Occupational Therapist student at Ulster University, Derry. But it’s a matter now of just getting on with it and getting a good league campaign under our belt”.  

Gartland also admitted there was no pomp and ceremony and no long conversation between him and manager Mickey McCann - a fellow Burt man - before he was handed the captain’s armband.  

“We played Fermanagh in a pre-season challenge game and, beforehand, Mickey just handed me the team sheet give it to the referee and get used to it because you are going to be doing it for the rest of the season. 

“I know Wicklow were depleted but they still fielded a young, fast and very fit team. We fielded a young team too and it is a great boost to the confidence of all the young players to go away from home and win big.” 

Donegal certainly were depleted and, from last year, were down the departed trio of Ritchie Ryan, Michael Donoghue and Christy McDermott as well as the injured Danny Cullen, Ronan McDermott, Declan Coulter, Daire Ó Maoileidigh and Padraig Doherty. 

Donegal also made the trip to Aughrim without Setanta duo Bernard Lafferty and Ruairi Campbell who were unavailable last weekend but the Ulster club winners are expected to be available this time out. Gartland has lifted silverware already this year when Donegal defeated Down in the Conor McGurk Cup final.

Donegal defeated Fermanagh as well as Saturday opponents Derry on their way to claiming back-to-back successes in the pre-season warm-up tournament.

Donegal defeated the Oak Leafers by a landslide margin, 4-25 to 1-8, at the Donegal GAA Centre in Convoy back at the beginning of January. 

But the new skipper feels it would not be wise to read too much into that result as Derry fielded a mostly U-20 team. Derry opened their league campaign with a ten-point win over Tyrone last weekend. So Gartland believes Derry are going to pose a much stronger challenge than Wicklow did. 

“They have dropped down from Division 2A and they reached the Christy  Ring Cup final last year. 

“They have been playing at a higher level for the last few seasons. Derry are being viewed as the top team in the league and the team to beat so that is the challenge.

“We have them at home in O’Donnell Park, which is an advantage and we want to make Letterkenny a fortress. And what better way to do it than get a positive result against Derry on Saturday”.