Shaun Maguire rolling back the years in Cloughaneely's SFC survival bid

Cloughaneely is having a difficult SFC campaign but veteran forward Shaun Maguire has been rolling back the years in front of the posts. 

In the three games to date, he’s Cloughaneely’s leading marksman and for a player that turned 41 back in March, has already posted 1-12 in that same time.  

It was not meant to be like this for Maguire who had dropped down to play reserve football last season. But desperate times have called for desperate measures and he’s answered that call.  

“I had hoped to play reserve football again this year,” he said. “But with so many fellas away and injuries Denis Doohan brought me back into the fold. 

“I settled in and it has gone well for me, personally, though we are struggling to pick up points.  

“We had a poor league and just stayed up after a play-off and things have not gone well in the championship either.  

“Glenties gave us a bit of a hammering the first day but we lost narrowly to Glenswilly and Downings - two games we could have won and had the chances to win but did not put them away”.  

Shaun scored three of Cloughaneely’s four points in their opening-day reversal to reigning champions Naomh Conaill in Pairc Naomh Fionnain.  

He followed that up with 1-3 in the Falcarragh outfit’s 2-6 to 0-14 away defeat to Glenswilly. 

And last time out, he notched six for Cloughaneely in their 0-10 to 1-9 defeat to Downings 

His first-half goal against Glenswilly rekindled memories as he also rattled the net against the Glen back in the 2005 Intermediate Championship final. 

Then boss Martin ‘Murt’ Collins explains: “I was the manager in 2005 and I remember just before half-time in the final Shaun scored a cracking goal. 

“He lobbed the keeper from 20 yards. I got onto him that it was a miss-kick for a point but knowing Shaun, he definitely spotted the keeper off his line and he lobbed him.  

“He has an unbelievable eye for goal and a great awareness of what was happening around him. He has scored some super goals for Cloughaneely down the years”.  

Collins was also manager when Shaun made the step from reserve to senior football.  

“I think it was around 2002. He was a good underage player but it was only when he started playing reserve football that he showed his real promise.  

“We had a good team at the time with the likes of Denis Boyle, John Paul Gallagher, and Liam Coyle in the forward line alone. 

“But Shaun slotted in no problem. He always played 13, 14, 15 and never let us down. He always gave it one hundred percent. 

“He was probably at his peak around 2010, ’11 and ‘12. I know he had a number of trials when Jim McGuinness was appointed manager in 2011 but did not make the cut.  

“He was an out-and-out inside forward and he was probably unlucky there was such a depth of talent for those inside positions. You had Michael Murphy, Colm McFadden, and a young Patrick McBrearty going for those spots so anyone was going to find it hard to break into that company. 

“But he must have been mighty close. I remember we played Bundoran in an intermediate final in 2010 and he had a great game on James Keaney who was on the county team at the time. 

” And sure, he is playing as well as ever this year - it’s quite remarkable really. He must be one of the top scorers in the championship so far despite the fact he is 41. 

“He is a great clubman overall. He is the club development officer this year and, for the last few years, he has been coaching underage.  

John Paul Gallagher - who was such a class act himself in front of the posts - remembers Maguire’s initial impact well.  

“He slotted in straight away when he came into the senior team. He was physically very strong and built like an ox.  

“The difference between Shaun and the rest of us in the full-forward was we were not known for tackling defenders but he was not afraid to get stuck in. 

“He was also very skillful, was two-footed, and must have been a nightmare to mark. And he’s still playing so well, mixing it and getting the better of players maybe half his age.”  

One man who knows how difficult Magure is to mark is former teammate and current manager, Michael Lynch.  

“I first got to know Shaun when I came back from America in 2004 and started back training with the club.  

“I was given the job of marking him and even back then he was a nightmare.  

“I managed him in later years as well. He is a builder and is very strong. He was a big player for us in all my years managing and I’m not surprised to see him still troubling defenders and hit big scores.”  

Despite that cracking goal, Maguire’s first big match experience did not end well as the Ciaran Bonner, Colin Kelly, and Neil Gallagher-powered Glenswilly came out on top in that Cathal McLaughlin Cup decider, 1-12 to 1-7.  

But both he and Cloughaneely were back again in 2006 to make up for the disappointment of the year before. 

“We beat Fanad Gaels in the final after a replay. We were beaten again in the 2010 final by Bundoran before we won again in 2014 getting revenge on Buncrana in that final.  

“We lost again in 2019 and 2020 to St Naul’s and Aodh Ruadh before we beat Dungloe, after another replay, in our third final in a row. 

“So between 2005 and 2022 we played in seven Intermediate finals and with draws in between, that was ten games and we won three of them.  

“Each time we were promoted to the SeniorCchampionship but we have never made any great impact there.  

“And it’s the same story again this year. We have played three games and we have lost three of them.  

“We are away to Kilcar now on Sunday, which is never an easy place to go. 

“So we are looking at another relegation play-off fight to avoid the drop back down to Intermediate. That is the goal now - to stay in the Senior Championship. 

Unfortunately for Maguire, the relegation play-off semi-finals are on a collision course with Donegal’s All-Ireland Masters Shield final on Saturday week, September 14, in Kingspan Breffni Park.