Maguire says Cloughaneely must iron out the creases to preserve SFC status

Martin Maguire hopes that Cloughaneely can make home advantage tell as they welcome Killybegs in a bid to avoid the complexities that might exist come the relegation play-offs from the Donegal SFC.

Although they’ve been in the top flight of the All-County Football League for five seasons, this is Cloughaneely’s return to the SFC having lifted the IFC last November following a replayed final victory over Dungloe.

Following on from a draw at Four Masters on the first weekend,  Cloughaneely couldn’t have had it trickier with Kilcar 0-19 to 0-7 winners in Falcarragh in round two before losing out to St Eunan’s on a 1-20 to 2-7 scoreline on Saturday.

That said, the point Cloughaneely have in the bag is more than five other sides - Milford, Ardara, St Naul’s, Glenfin and Bundoran - have and a home fixture against Killybegs on Sunday means Michael Lynch’s team has their destiny in their own hands.

“I suppose there’s some sort of positives in the fact we scored 2-7 here, which was better than we managed against Kilcar,” Maguire said last weekend of the defeat to St Eunan’s. “Attacking-wise it was certainly better but it was tough defensively. St Eunan’s scored 1-20 and didn’t kick a wide. It is hard to take positives.

“It's a massive step-up for us and don’t get me wrong, it’s great to be here. We’ve played maybe the top two teams in the county in consecutive weeks and if one of them does win this championship then they’ll be looking to do well in Ulster as well. Our opening game against Four Masters was the sort of game where both sides could’ve won and we probably should’ve pushed on having got a bit ahead. ”

The experience of Division 1 football means Cloughaneely are battle-hardened in certain ways, although Maguire believes although positive results there certainly boost morale, he finds the top teams can take it to another level come championship.

“You think when you play league against those teams you fare well enough but they have another gear then in championship,” he added. “We pulled out a couple of good wins in the league, like beating Kilcar at home and then winning at St Michael’s. I’m 32 now and in all my time playing we never managed to get the better of them. I can’t ever remember getting a result against Michael’s, perhaps as far back as when I was a minor. 

“You have to be ready for championship. We looked back at Kilcar and they scored something like 14 scores from our mistakes, so it’s a matter of tidying it up. We’re not a bad outfit but we have to make sure we don’t lose ball like that again. We always say in the dressing rooms that we have to cut out the mistakes.”


Cloughaneely know Sunday will present another challenge against Killybegs, who are within touching distance of a quarter-final berth, with the visitors knowing a win will also mean they don’t have to be trawling Twitter for other results afterwards.

“The pressure is on but we know at least we’re at home,” Maguire added. “We have to pick ourselves up and go again now against Killybegs. There was never going to be an easy draw and Killybegs are right in the mix. We have a point on the board but we can’t take the chance on thinking that will be enough as other results could well go against us.

“We know that a win at home will remove all doubt and seeing we survived in Division 1 and if we can do the same on our first year back in the senior championship, that would be a decent enough season and one we could hopefully push on from next year. We’ve the home crowd so fingers crossed we can get the result we need.”