London’s calling for Declan Coulter - back in tow for the Allianz Hurling League

Declan Coulter, at 35, is back in the Donegal colours and facing into a most promising season in the green and gold.

Coulter has been a huge help to Donegal since he transferred from Armagh and played a key role in their ascent to Division 2 B of the NHL and their two Nickey Rackard Cup wins in 2018 and 2020.

Sunday will be his first time back since that disappointing Nickey Rackard Cup defeat to Tyrone in Carrickmore last July. A niggling injury meant that he missed out on the entire Conor McGurk Cup campaign where an impressive Donegal were denied victory by Down at the death.

Donegal's dynamic duo return for NHL opener against London

Danny Cullen and Declan Coulter have returned to the panel ahead of the NHL Division 2B fixture against London at O'Donnell Park on Sunday, 12 noon

Sunday, with London visiting Letterkenny at noon, also sees the return of his equally gifted brother-in-law Danny Cullen who trained for the first- time last week after coming back from his honeymoon.

“It sure is good to be back and there is always that bit of excitement at the start of the New Year with new players coming in and boys getting into shape and there is a good buzz about the panel and hopefully we can realise our full potential this year,” Coulter said.

Coulter may have been looking from the outside in, but he was impressed with the early season form shown by his teammates in the McGurk cup, where they defeated Antrim under-20s and UUJ before losing to Down by a single point in the final they might have won.

“They did very well and there is some talent there and now we have boys coming into the panel at 18 or 19 who are physically ready for it and that was not always the case,” Coulter added.

“There is a good spread of strong young fellows in the squad and yes we were missing a few lads in the McGurk Cup, but that is the nature of sport and it is good to see that the wheel is still turning.

Coulter contends that London will be a bit of an unknown quantity, although Donegal could have got a much tougher opener against the likes of Wicklow, Derry or Mayo.

“With London, you don’t know who is out there from year to year and they can change quite a bit but we will still have to be fully prepared for them,” he added. “This division is very even, and a lot of teams can take points off each other. It could depend on who can keep their squad relatively injury free and fit.

“We have Derry and Mayo in the latter part of the League, and it gives us five or six weeks of a build- up to get a game plan, to get boys back and to gel together for the season”.

“There are no walkovers, and everybody is there on a par and the team that makes the least mistakes, has the best discipline record and avoids injuries over the next five or six weeks will top the League and fight it out for promotion.

Setanta's Campbell a goalscorer as Queen's reach All-Ireland Freshers League final

Campbell managed to score a goal and a point as the Belfast side came through against UCD in the high-scoring affair

“Mickey McCann said a few weeks ago that this was the strongest squad that he had been involved with and with Davin Flynn back on board and Ritchie Ryan in great shape and hitting the frees well, it gives us something extra.

“And we have boys who had been on the fringes now, really challenging for starting slots and that makes a big difference too. You would be looking forward with quiet confidence, but we will not get ahead of ourselves, but we know that we are at this level, and we have an opportunity to carry it on another bit”.