'Promotion was always our main aim this season' – Donegal Town skipper Eoin Slevin

Donegal Town captain Eoin Slevin says that while his side are happy with the season they’ve had so far and the progress they've made as a team, he admits that the squad are not resting on their laurels with them looking to achieve their ultimate aim of getting promotion back to the Premier Division. 

The First Division side will face Gweedore Celtic in a play-off this Sunday in Ballyare at 1pm, with the Donegal Town men, managed by Paul McHugh, hoping to return to the top-flight for the first time in two years. 

The Donegal Town captain acknowledged that the team's primary aim was to achieve automatic promotion this year, but he knew with Bonagee United and Letterkenny Rovers, who dropped down from the Ulster Senior League, also in the same division, it was going to be a tough mountain to climb, but one they did with great confidence. 

And as they now approach the summit, only Gweedore Celtic stand in their way of returning to the top flight, a team the Donegal Town side are all too familiar with from their battles in the First Division last season. 

“Look it’s been a great season for us as a club. Now I don’t know if you’d say we were unlucky or unfortunate, but our aim was to get automatic promotion, so, we’ll just have to do it now through a play-off and I’m hoping and confident we will,” said the Donegal Town captain. 

“It was tight the whole way between us and Bonagee in terms of pushing for second place, but unfortunately we dropped points in two of our games towards the end of the year which we were upset with, but look we still have an opportunity now to get back to the Premier Division which is where we want to be.” 

With Donegal Town only losing four games throughout their 18-game league campaign and finishing on 38 points, three points behind second-place side Bonagee, the men from Donegal Town will no doubt be full of confidence coming up against a Gweedore Celtic team who have struggled throughout the season, recording only five league wins. 

“You have to be confident going into a game as big as this one, and we have the players that can get us over the line. Now saying that, we know how good this Gweedore side can be, they’ve been pushing for promotion to the Premier Division for years and they got that last season,” said Slevin. 

“We played them twice in the First Division last season, they won at home, and we won our game at home, so we know they’re a good footballing side and it’s a game we’re really looking forward to. We just hope it works in our favour this weekend.”