St Mary’s, Convoy and Carndonagh tangle in Division 3 decider 

St Mary’s, Convoy and Carndonagh may already be in bonus territory ahead of this Saturday's Division 3 final in Hibernian Park but both are determined to jump tiers as champions. 

Laurence McMullan, Convoy’s player-manager and opposite number with the Inishowen outfit, Michael O’Donnell, are both excited about the opportunity to get their hands on silverware in Burt (throw-in, 3.30pm). 

“We’ve won ten from ten games played and are unbeaten so we certainly want to win the final now that we are in it,” said McMullan. 

“Promotion was the target at the start of the season and it is great to have achieved that with what is, by and large, a young team. 

“There is only so much silverware you can win. It is either a league title or the Junior championship.

“And now that we are in the final we are looking forward to it and hoping to go on and win it. We’ve had a great run in the league and winning can become a habit so we don’t want to break a good habit. 

“The lads have done very well so far and the young fellas that we added to the team like Liam Toye, Pauric Gordon and Neil Sweeney have done really well and are now regulars.

“We’ve lost a good few players from last year and the young lads have really stepped up to take their places. Bryan McNamee has also returned from Australia and has been a great addition and has really strengthened the team.” 

St Mary’s may be the form and unbeaten team but Saturday’s opponents Carndonagh are not too far behind.

The Inishowen men have only lost once in ten outings themselves and finished just two points off the coattails of Convoy. 

“Yeah, we’ve lost just once that was away to Burt,” explained O’Donnell who has returned to his home club after the best part of a decade playing at a high level in the FAI League of Ireland with the likes of UCD, Dublin City and Galway United. 

And they have achieved all that without star player Conor O’Donnell who has been away with Donegal. 

“We knew we were not going to have Conor for the league because he was going to be away playing with the county. 

“We’ve a lot of good footballers in Carndonagh as well as Conor and we just went on and played away without him.

“Conor may not have been free to play with us but he was down at every training session he could fit in and was always helping out. 

“It is great to have because the rest of the players really look up to him. We were really delighted when he returned from injury for the All-Ireland quarter-final. 

“We were looking forward to seeing him in action again on Sunday and then, unfortunately, he got injured again last week in training. 

“I don’t know the extent of the injury or what it is and I haven’t been chatting to him since Sunday. I’m meeting him tomorrow (Wednesday) and I will know better then. 

“But at the moment we are planning to be without him on Saturday.” 

Like McMullan, O’Donnell has introduced a number of last year's minors to the squad and has a good mix of youth and experience. 

“Finals are for winning and we certainly would like to win Saturday’s final. Our total focus  this week is on the final and winning it.”