It has been game by game for Dungloe and their young captain Conor O’Donnell in this year’s Donegal intermediate Championship.
Dungloe, last year’s beaten finalists, were paired with Burt, Gaeil Fhánada, Malin and Naomh Muire when the draw was made.
And with Burt and Malin away and Gaeil Fhanada and Naomh Muire at home it was a tricky enough group. Burt swept all before on their way to winning Division 3 of the All-County Football League. Malin lost just once in Division 2 and were promoted and Gaeil Fhanada had won the All-Ireland Junior Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta.
Naomh Muire had clinched promotion to Division 2 and it was a local derby clash. Like all local derbies games between Dungloe and the Rosses neighbours takes on a life of its own.
After an indifferent league campaign one of the fancied sides for promotion Dungloe finished in a mid-table in Division 2 and well out of contention for the step-up.
“We did not get a right run in the league,” O’Donnell said. “We had a lot of injuries and what not and the team on the field did not perform either. For the championship it really was a matter of taking it game by game because it is such a competitive championship and we were in a tough group.
“If you took your eye off the ball because any of the teams were capable of beating each other, on any given day. Once the league was over the total focus was on the championship and the first game against Burt.”
Dungloe opened with a win in Hibernian Park, 3-10 to 0-9, although it was close until the three-quarter mark and Dessie Gallagher’s team followed Burt win with wins over Gaeil Fhanada 3-9 to 2-5, Malin 1-10 to 1-7 and Naomh Muire, on a 2-7 to 0-7 scoreline.
“We got off to a good start in Burt which was a tough test too because they were going well and they really put it up to us before we scored a few late goals to win,” O’Donnell said.
“Malin was a big game. They had super league and because they had lost their two opening games they had to go all out against us. They really put it up to us in the second half after it looked like we were going to have a comfortable enough win.
“Matthew Ward scored a goal for us at the start of the second half and we thought we had the job done. But they really put it up to us in the second half and thankfully we got the result. That was a big result.”
With a quarter-final place in the bag Dungloe faced Naomh Muire, in the last of the group games. Even though we had qualified ahead of the Naomh Muire game we still wanted to win it. There were bragging rights at stake and a win would guarantee the top place.”
As it happened Naomh Muire, squeezed in to take the eighth place in the standings and the last of the quarter-final places. The side would meet again in Letterkenny, with Danny O’Donnell’s team coming from eight down to one before late goals from Daire Gallagher and Christy Greene sealed a 3-10 to 0-11 Dungloe win.
“Naomh Muire upped their game big time from the game in Dungloe for the quarter final,” O’Donnell added. “They pushed us all the way and we scored two goals near the end that put a little daylight between us at the end.
Dungloe drew Termon in the semi-final at Pearse Park, under the lights, two days ago and worked out a win of 0-11 to 0-7.
“We were very wary of Termon because they were one of the teams from the start picked out as one of the contenders for the championship,” O’Donnell added.
“And again thankfully we came through against Termon with a few points to spare after letting a good half-time lead slip. It was a real battle in the second half.”
A feature of a number of Dungloe’s games in the campaign so far is they get off to lightning fast starts and build up early leads and then let those fritter away. It happened against Termon, in the semi-final. It happened against Naomh Muire, in the quarter-final and it happened against Malin, at the group stages.
“It is something we are conscious of and that we need to get out of our game,” O’Donnell added. “We always seem to play well for the first 15 to 20 minutes and then coming into half-time we seem to dip a bit.
“And we tend to be slow out of the blocks in the second half. Hopefully in the final we put in a full solid 60 minutes.”
Dungloe and Naomh Columba are no strangers to each other. Dungloe beat Naomh Columba twice last year, once in the league and the other time was in last year’s championship semi-final, on a scoreline of 2-12 to 0-12.
“It was a tough game last year and we were delighted to get the result,” O’Donnell said. “It was a big battle and we are expecting nothing different this year. Naomh Columba are playing some impressive football. I watched them against Fanad in the semi-final and they were very good. They are a really good team and are going to be very hard to beat and we are expecting a big challenge.”
