Denis O'Gorman: Letterbarrow can ‘cut it’ in Donegal League First Division

Letterbarrow Celtic boss Denis O'Gorman believes this could be one of the strongest Donegal League First Divisions he's ever seen.

O'Gorman's popular Donegal Town barber shop is a weekly hive of football talk. But with three decades of local soccer experience under his belt - the man with the razor usually has the last word. And he feels this season's Donegal League second tier is stronger than he's ever seen it. 

Experienced campaigner O'Gorman has seen his side suffer four straight losses at the start of the campaign but believes they can reverse that early bad form.

It certainly doesn’t get any easier as they host high-flying Letterkenny Rovers on Sunday - with Stephen McConnell’s men three from three so far.

"This is a brilliant division and we're going to do everything just to try and stay in it," said O'Gorman.

"Last year, we finished just behind Donegal Town and they're a huge pick and over the years we've had Milford United, Gweedore Celtic, Swilly Rovers and Fanad United in this tier.

"Every time you turn a corner, there is a bigger bus in front of you and that's not a bad thing. You're better off playing against teams like this and even though you risk getting stuffed, you learn more than playing an inferior team and getting nothing from it.

"In my experience, and I've been at this 30 years, I've never seen a Division One as strong as this. From the top to the bottom, there's quality and this is where you want to be, especially the young lads and the football being played is fantastic”.

Rovers are overwhelming favourites to go on and win the league and Gorman is under no illusions ahead of Sunday.

"Letterkenny Rovers are the outstanding team, there's no doubt about that," he said.

"They'll win this league, I think everybody would be shocked if they didn't.

“They're a tough side and we've done well against them in the last few years, they didn't get too much joy in our place but they always beat us on their patch.

"Stephen McConnell has managed them brilliantly and they've great players and a great system and when you add that Ulster Senior League quality onto it, it's just swimming against the current from a small country club's perspective."

Letterbarrow currently find themselves bottom of the pile having struggled in their first four games and Gorman has put that down to a few different factors.

"We're down to the bare bones, we have been since the beginning of the season," he stated.

"We might have one or two available that we didn't have last week and we only had 12 last week against Gweedore United and some of those lads were 16 and 17 years old.

"It's their first year in the Donegal League and it can be tough. We have two GAA clubs around us, Four Masters and St. Naul’s, and we have a few lads on each team and then you have injuries and we lost a few to Donegal Town.

"Once we get settled and that could be halfway through the season, things won't be too bad.

"There are four or five teams down there battling even at this early stage and we're definitely one of them and we'll dig in and I'm looking forward to it in one sense, dreading it in another." he concluded.