Gaeil Fhánada keeping the focus on themselves as Downings lay in wait

Barry Meehan believes Gaeil Fhánada are beginning to find a groove again.

In June, Gaeil Fhánada overcame Cill Chomáin in the junior final of the All-Ireland Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta in Galway.

Now, the Portsalon outfit are gearing up for an Intermediate Championship quarter-final against derby rivals Downings after a 2-9 to 0-8 win over Burt on Saturday evening.

“We’re very happy with how things are going,” Gaeil Fhánada mentor Meehan told Donegal Live.

“We’ve been a wee bit slow to start in this Championships, but games are coming week-on-week, which is a big help after the All-Ireland Gaeltacht.

“We just had to worry about ourselves and get over the line to be sure. We knew we needed the win.

Strong finish puts Gaeil Fhánada into IFC quarter-finals at Burt's expense

Gaeil Fhánada scored 1-3 in the final eight minutes to defeat Burt and book a place in the last eight of the Donegal IFC.

“Any team can beat another in this Championship. Maybe teams pull away at the end, but most games are very competitive. We’ll have to just get ourselves ready for the quarter-final.”

Liam McGrenaghan and Jimmy Coyle were the Gaeil Fhánada goalscorers on an evening the had a winner-takes-all feel with a quarter-final berth up for grabs for both sides.

In the end, Gaeil Fhánada had a comfortable margin, but for a long period it was anything but.

“It definitely didn’t feel like a seven-point game,” Meehan said.

“Burt came at us looking for the win and they put us under a lot of pressure, but we got a hold of it.

“We got a couple of goals when they came at us and that gave us a bit of breathing space.

“It was a ding-dong battle. We saw Burt in Dungloe and they were excellent that night. The goals killed them that night too and it was only in the last few minutes that Termon got away from them.

“Burt have put it up to everyone so far and they can count themselves very unlucky not to have gone through.”

Burt hit back after McGrenaghan’s goal, but when Coyle prodded home 11 minutes from time the curtains could be drawn.

Meehan said: “We got some traction off the first goal and it meant that Burt had to come at us. They were sending ball into Sean McHugh and he was causing us a lot of bother. We got to grips and our work rate was phenomenal in the second half.”