Main aim is to develop young players for U-20 and senior says minor manager Luke Barrett

Donegal minors have their final game in the group stages of the Jim McGuigan Cup on Saturday when they host Sligo in Sean MacCumhaill Park (12 noon).

After their success against Derry on Saturday last in Celtic Park, they are in the running to top the group and make the final, but even with a win against Sligo, it will probably come down to score difference with Derry favourites to advance, given their wins over Sligo and Cavan earlier in the campaign.

Derry have a +17 score difference while Donegal are on +12. Cavan have completed their programme and top the table on six points with a +9 advantage.

So for Donegal to be group winners they will have to defeat Sligo by six points more than Derry defeat Fermanagh. If, however, Fermanagh were to shock Derry, then a one point win for Donegal will suffice.

Donegal manager, Luke Barrett, was very happy with his side's showing on Saturday last in defeating Derry in Celtic Park.
"It showed that we can compete now," said Barrett.

"Maghera won the Ranafast and Hogan Cups and they have players that have backboned that team. That level of football, I think the first 15 minutes on Saturday, the pace was just frantic," he said.

He felt the game was a top quality contest. "It gives them top exposure. That was as high a quality of game that I have seen at minor level for all the time I was involved. Maybe Monaghan last year, the two of them was very similar," said Barrett, who added that he hadn't encountered a game of such intensity even when it was U-18.

"It was end to end stuff. They were sharp from the MacRory and Ranafast Cup and we are just building as well as you would do at senior level with league and championship. But they have been at championship pitch now for a couple of weeks. I think the Ranafast Cup was only two weeks ago."

Donegal have played three games, winning two and losing one - that to Cavan.
"We have used 20 games in all three games and of the squad, we have used 23,24 players. Again on Saturday next, it didn't matter what the result was against Cavan, Fermanagh or Derry, we are going to use 20 players to give players an opportunity. We will try to use as many different players as possible, to give them exposure pre-championship. It is likely that this will be our last game before the championship game against Down in three weeks' time," said Barrett, who said the players will have had exposure at three big stadiums, Breffni Park, Celtic Park and MacCumhaill Park on Saturday.

"They are getting exposure to the surroundings as well and that will prove invaluable. We said at the outset that we would give as many players a chance and we have stuck to that.

Barrett feels that the change in playing conditions has been very helpful. "You could see last Wednesday night at training Convoy that there was a bit of a bounce about them. And looking back before the Cavan game we trained in very poor conditions and then on Saturday the pitch was rock hard and the sun was in the sky."

The Milford man says he has got a good look at the panel and he hopes to have given at least 26,27 players a chance after the Sligo game. "We still have a few players injured, Sean Martin, Eoghan Kelly, Cian McGee. I don't expect them to make Saturday, but that gave opportunities last week. Odhran Doherty from Naomh Conaill came in and did really well.
"There is really good competition for places with intensity at training."

As for the outcome of the group, he feels Derry are in pole position.
"Derry would have to be favourites. They play Fermanagh; I don't know what happened Fermanagh because the quality of player that they have is really strong. Maybe they started a wee bit later. They are catching up.

"We are only looking after our own. We are only looking after our performance as well. It will be nice for the boys to get into MacCumhaill Park. There is a mindset that Sligo are maybe poor this year. They have five players that played in the Connacht championship final (last year) and they haven't played a minute of football this year yet and they are all back on board this weekend," said Barrett, who said that he had spoken with the Sligo manager earlier in the season and he was hoping to have his full contingent for the final two games and getting ready for the Connacht championship.

"They're coming full strength. That Sligo team, we only beat them by a couple of points last year and they went on to win the Connacht title and were close to getting into an All-Ireland final," said Barrett, who agreed that it was better for Donegal to be playing a full-strength Sligo team.



"Regardless of the result on Saturday, if we can get an intense championship-type game, that will be two valuable learning days for them. The bottom line some of these guys are 15, some 16, some 17. There is an onus sometimes, we need to win this or we need to do this. If we can develop as many players as possible and bring them through to U-20s and seniors, to me that's success.

"And games like Saturday when you are playing the best that Connacht has to offer, you're going to compete with the, compete with the best teams in Ulster. And given the bit of belief that they know, we might not win every day, but we can compete every day. That's massive for Donegal football. We're looking forward to it now," said Barrett.