St Eunan's Barry Meehan: Caolan Ward's return from injury ‘absolutely brilliant’

Caolan Ward made his first appearance of the calendar year on Sunday as St Eunan’s overcame Glenswilly in Division 1 of the All-County Football League.

The defender, who is part of the Donegal senior panel, was permitted a run-out by county management following hamstring surgery and subsequent rehab and came on 38 minutes into St Eunan’s 2-13 to 0-9 victory over their neighbours.

St Eunan’s manager Barry Meehan was glad to welcome Ward back, on a week when another important defender for the Letterkenny club also returns.

“It was absolutely brilliant to see him back,” Meehan said of Ward. “He’s gone through a tough time there and we were glad to get him there today. He’s had an operation and rehab and we spoke during the week, where he said he was looking forward to getting back into county training. We got the call to say we could use him so we were delighted to do so.

“We’re down a few numbers but as the weeks go by we’re getting there. There’s plenty there who have put their hands up and they might be hard to put out of the team when everyone is back. There will be a competition for places.”

Centre-back Conor O’Donnell has returned to the country following a stint in Australia, where he transferred to Penrith Gaels and will hook up once again with St Eunan’s, with all signed, sealed and delivered.

“Conor’s transfer is through and we’ll be integrating him in the coming weeks, he’s back from Australia,” Meehan said.

St Eunan’s will be without Peter McEniff, who is in New York for the year, and have added former Clontibret player Pauric Boyle, who is living and married in Letterkenny. Boyle and his brother, former Monaghan senior Conor, played against Naomh Conaill in the 2019 Ulster Club SFC semi-final.

Following their 1-11 to 1-7 loss at Towney against Kilcar on the opening weekend, St Eunan’s have now racked up three wins on the bounce and take on Aodh Ruadh away on Saturday afternoon.

Their performance on Sunday last against Glenswilly was composed and controlled and Meehan, who previously managed the O’Donnell Park club in 2017, was satisfied with the showing.

“It’s still only April and we’re going a wee bit better than we were at the start of April,” he said. “We’re improving bit by bit every week, so we’re happy with how we’re going. Glenswilly are a good side with a lot of the good young players coming through and had started the season very well. We managed the game well.

“We knew that April was going to be a challenging month and that will continue on Saturday in Ballyshannon. We’ve had tricky assignments to date and we’ll try and get the house in order to take on Aodh Ruadh.”