Gaoth Dobhair seek to rebound from narrow defeat as they face familiar foes

Gaoth Dobhair and Sean MacCumhaill’s are one of the four preliminary quarter-final games pairings down for decision this weekend, a game that Gaoth Dobhair manager Ronan MacNiallais said neither team wanted and are all too familiar with. 

“We know each other pretty well because we played them twice last year,” MacNiallais said. “We played them in the group game and we played them again in the county semi-final,” said the Gaoth Dobhair boss regarding two games his side won 

“So, we are familiar with each other which makes it interesting in that regard. We didn’t want to be playing them and I’m sure they do not want to play us either.”  

This fixture comes after MacNiallais’s side suffered a narrow one-point defeat to high-flying St Michael’s last Sunday in Magheragallon.  

Gaoth Dobhair lost their opening game to an emerging Four Masters in the first round of the championship but followed that defeat with wins over Glenfin and St Eunans before book-ending the group stages with Sunday’s 0-6 to 0-5 defeat to St Michael's.  

MacNiallais was disappointed with Sunday’s defeat especially because it was on home soil, but he had also done the math before the game and had figured out that a place in the top four and a quarter-final berth was beyond his side.  

And that was regardless of how the St Michael’s game panned out.  

“We hadn’t a hope in hell of making the top four when you look at the score difference,” he told Donegal Live.  

“We knew Dungloe were going to put up a big score against St Naul’s. And we felt Kilcar was going to do the same against Cloughaneely because St Naul’s and Cloughaneely had nothing to play for at that point really.  

“We had done the math and we knew win or lose, we would be finishing in eighth place as long as we didn’t take a hammering.  

“Even if we won, we would not have made the top four.”  

But that does not mean that the Gaeltacht men had thrown in the towel before the ball was thrown in with the Gaoth Dobhair manager stressing the importance of trying to maintain a good record at home.  

He also felt the fact that St Michaels who were bidding for a fourth successive win and a top-four finish gave them a greater incentive to go and win the game. 

“We still wanted to win the game, we are at home, and we don’t like losing at home. It is something that does not happen often,” he stressed. 

“St Michaels set up very well and were hard to break down. We had a few chances to score early on and when we didn’t take them, we were always going to be in bother. 

“I thought we battled well in the second half and I thought we brought a bit more bite and a bit more aggression to our game. 

“We got through for a few good scores but again we had a few bad wides which proved costly at the finish.”  

With the likes of Niall Friel and Ciaran Gillespie forced to sit out of the game last weekend through injury, against a team like St Michael’s it was always going to be a tough game.  

With Friel set to return for this weekend’s game, the Gaeltacht side hopes that will put an added boost in their step as they hope to keep their championship hopes alive.