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06 Sept 2025

Darren O'Leary enjoying the 'good vibe' at Sean MacCumhaills

After winning promotion to Division 1 in the League, MacCumhaills opened the 2022 Donegal SFC with a away draw at St Michael's on Saturday

Darren O'Leary enjoying the 'good vibe' at Sean MacCumhaills

Gary Wilson of Sean MacCumhaills goes for the ball with Antoin McFadden close by. Photo: Chris Doherty

Darren O’Leary pointed to Sean MacCumhaills’ heart after an exciting Donegal SFC draw with St Michael’s on Saturday evening.

MacCumhaills twice came from four points down to earn a 1-11 stalemate.

Having hit back from four in arrears in the first-half, Joel Bradley-Walsh cancelled out a Michael Langan goal as MacCumhaills held on for a precious point at The Bridge.

Recently promoted back to the top flight of the All-County Football League, thanks to a promotion play-off win over Milford, MacCumhaills are on the up under joint managers O’Leary and Mark O’Sullivan.

“We’re in a good enough place,” O’Leary told Donegal Live.

“Promotion brought a good buzz and boys are fighting for places, left, right and centre. That’s probably as strong a bench as we’ve had in three or four years.

“Promotion was the big aim. It was massive. When we sat down in January, it was about promotion. It’s up to us to get up there now and stay there.

“The training has been powerful in the last few weeks. We’ve got promoted and there’s a good vibe about MacCumhaills at the minute.”

MacCumhaills were at Murvagh beach on Sunday morning for a recovery session after Saturday’s hard-fought draw.

Aaron Gillooley is nearing fitness and MacCumhaills will hope that a leg injury which forced Padhraic Patton’s withdrawal in Dunfanaghy isn’t too serious,

O’Leary said: “We’d have taken a point before we came down and a draw was probably a fair result there. We’re delighted to come out of here with a draw.

“I was right behind the ball and saw Michael coming to take the kick. I just thought: ‘Right, we’re in bother here’. Thankfully it went wide. It’s not like him, but we feel as if we earned the draw.

“We were 0-5 to 0-1 down early enough and the boys dug in deep. It was the same, coming from four points down, when Michael got the goal in the second half. We’re proud of the boys for showing that heart. We were written off all week coming down here. We know what’s in that dressing room and they’re stepping up to the plate.”

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