St Michael's continuing to look on the bright side despite the loss of Langan

From relegation play-off survivors to quarter-finalists, it’s been a wild ride for St Michael’s in the Donegal senior championship over the last 12 months. 

Last Sunday in Magheragallon, they chalked up their fourth straight championship win to join Glenswilly as the only two teams with a 100pc record this season in the Dr Maguire Cup competition.  

The 0-6 to 0-5 point win for St Michael’s will not live long in the memory of the football purists. 

But it will not bother the St Michael’s players or their joint managers Cathal Sweeney and Raymond McLaughlin or devotees of the club from Dunfanaghy to Creeslough as they made it four from four.  

And they hope to continue that great run of form, despite losing star man Michael Langan who has left to go travelling for six weeks. And while Sweeney admits that Langan will be a big loss, he praised the effort he's brought to St Michael's in bringing them this far and hopes the rest of the players can and will fill the void.

“Michael is a massive loss,” Sweeney acknowledged. “You saw the performance he put in today. He is a massive player for us. He is our star player and there is no other way you can describe him. 

“But at the end of the day, there are 14 other players on the pitch and another 10 on the subs bench. 

“Without all those other players we would not be in this position. Michael wanted to head away travelling the last few years and the time has come now and he is heading off. 

“It is all about the boys that have been with us since January, they have put in the work, they have made a lot of sacrifices and it is those players who have got us to this stage. 

“We are going to keep our shoulders to the wheel over the next couple of weeks. We will set ourselves another small target and we will look to achieve that in the coming weeks. That has been the way all season and it has worked so far.”

But despite the loss of Langan, Sweeney and his Michael's men preferred to focus on the win and the positives moving forward.

“Four out of four and qualification for the quarter-final . . . we are delighted with that,” said Sweeney afterwards.  

“We are just after checking the table there and ourselves and Glenswilly are the only unbeaten teams with four wins. 

“Glenswilly are on the top spot and we are second but that doesn’t bother us. The important thing is we are straight through to the quarter-final.   

“If we were told at the start of the championship that we would have this run we would have doubts in our own minds. 

“But I cannot thank the players enough. They have put in a serious amount of work this year. As a group they felt they had a point to prove after last year.”  

St Michaels defeated Milford by a point 0-9 to 1-5 in the semi-final of the relegation play-off at the end of last year’s championship in September 2023 with Sweeney overjoyed with how much his side has come on in that time without setting any overambitious targets at the start of the campaign. 

“It is a long time since St Michael’s have won four games in a row in the championship and it is a great achievement for the group of players,” he said. 

“We set ourselves small goals and small targets right the way through the championship. We did not set any major goals or targets for the championship overall. 

“It is about taking small steps and putting the best foot forward every day we play and hopefully get the right result. 

“Today was no different. We knew it was Gaoth Dobhair and we focused on them and we had a game plan. And again, I cannot praise the players enough because they carried out the game plan to the letter of the law.” 

In a low-scoring first-half of football that saw teams mirroring each other with packed defences and playing against a stiff wind, St Michael’s went level with the locals at 0-2 each at the break.  

“We were happy at half-time because there was a stiff breeze in the first half,” Sweeney told Donegal Live.  

“Because of Martin’s (McElhinney) black card at the end of the first half, that meant we were down to 14 men. So, we had to sit back a bit at the start after half-time and soak up the pressure.  

“When we got Martin back on and got Daniel McLaughlin on after 10 minutes it allowed us to go back into our shape again.  

“In fairness, Gaoth Dobhair threw a lot at us in the second half, it is never easy to come to Magheragallon and get a result and we are happy that we held on. 

“But at the end of the day, we are not getting carried away. As I said earlier, we have been setting small targets within the group and we are hitting those targets each week and as far as we are concerned today is just another box these boys have ticked off.”