Boyle praises never-say-die attitude of Dungloe players following intermediate win

Dungloe manager Tony Boyle praised the effort of his young side following their two-point win over Ardara in the Donegal IFC on Sunday in O’Donnell Park. 

A game of two halves saw the Rosses club come from seven points down at the break, to close the gap against Ardara as they entered the last quarter, with particular praise going to his three U-15 subs who came off the bench to help their side to a 1-8 to 0-9 point win. 

“We’re happy to get over the line because we didn’t do ourselves justice in the first half,” Boyle said after the game in O’Donnell Park. “Ardara came out and was very physical, had great intensity, and kicked some great scores. 

“To be honest, I was happy that we were only seven points down because we coughed up too many chances, we had a couple of goal chances that we should’ve kicked over the bar but I did tell the girls that if we stuck to our plan and kept chipping away and take the lead back down, then we would always have a chance. 

“To be fair, the girls did that. And especially the young girls, we had three U-15s that came off the bench and made a massive impact, and that got us over the line.” 

Boyle issues great praise to Ardara, who dominated the early stages of the game, putting Dungloe under serious pressure in their backline and forcing them into make mistakes and making their opponents to cough up possession. 

But in the second half, Dungloe would eventually find their purple patch, with substitute Mia O’Donnell firing it over the head of the Ardara goalkeeper into the roof of the net for the opening goal of the game, with the Rosses side keeping Ardara scoreless for the entirety of the second half. 

“It’s very disappointing for Ardara because they’ve put in such an effort and they’re probably sick looking at us at this stage through underage finals and all, but overall, we’re delighted to have won the intermediate championship in our first year,” the 1992 All-Ireland winner said. 

“We let the girls know at half time that the first-half was not what we expected from them, and they were disappointed with themselves, some of the younger girls were a little bit nervous, but you have to give credit to Ardara, they push up and put a really high press on us. 

“We struggled to get out of defence, we rushed kickouts, and that was stuff we hadn’t been doing all year, and it was the worst 30 minutes off football we played in three years, but fair play to them for sticking with it, and I always felt that if we were close coming down the line then we would have enough firepower to get over the line. 

“We didn’t play well, but the reason we didn’t play well was because of how well Ardara pressed in the first half, we had a number of goal chances that we should’ve kicked over the bar but we’re happy we got there in the end.” 

With the team needed some extra firepower, Boyle called upon three U-15 players who played their part, with O’Donnell coming on in the second half to land 1-3 in the process. 

“We had three U-15s that played for us today, Mia O’Donnell, Nicole Gillespie, and my own daughter Toni, they’re brilliant players and just natural ball players,” he said. 

“Mia’s scoring range is unreal. I remember her kicking a ball over the stand here in O’Donnell Park at a U-12 blitz once. She’s a phenomenal player and a great finisher. 

“In one sense I didn’t want to go to the U-15s to get us out of a hole but I was glad to have them. Mia kicking 1-3 was unreal and she’s just a fantastic player.” 

Highlighting the work done in Dungloe at ladies’ level, Boyle credits the extra shift that has been focused in on the underage teams over the last few years and while he believes that they are on the right trajectory, he knows thet have a long way to go to be competing with the best teams at senior level. 

“There’s a lot of hard work being done in the club at underage because the likes of myself, Raymond Sweeney, Shaun Sharkey, Joe Boyle, Mark Clerkin, all ex-footballers who have daughters, we all managed underage boys' teams, then I was getting it at home why I wasn’t helping the ladies out, so that’s where it started,” he said. 

“So, I’ve been involved for five years now since U-13. They’ve won every championship up. So, there’s been hard work done in the club but we know when compared to the likes of Termon, we’re still two or three years behind, but that’s our aim. 

“We’ve won the minor, U-16, and U-15 championship this year, and we won those three years in a row now, so we have a lot of talent coming through but the step up to Termon is a big step up and we hope to do that in the next two or three years.”