Donegal Town FC looking towards youth to build for 2024/25 season

They may have won 9-0 against Dunkineely Celtic last weekend in the Brian McCormick Cup, but Donegal Town FC know they will have much greater opposition in the First Division this season, with the football season now underway. 

The Donegal Town side is now under new management with long-serving coach Marty Byrne now stepping up to the role as manager, replacing Paul McHugh, who had been at the helm for eight years. 

And while Byrne’s new squad has already experienced some setbacks this year with players walking away from the club for various reasons, the belief in the area is that there is no reason that they can’t be back near the top of the First Division this season, after pushing Bonagee United and Letterkenny Rovers right to the end. 

The Town would eventually fall in the play-off stages to Gweedore Celtic resulting in a third season in the second tier of Donegal football as they now aim to go again. 

“We’re ready now for a new season again,” said Byrne. “Paul McHugh was there for eight years and I was there alongside him. The idea was that two of us came into the job together so we would go out of the job together, but as we all know, there’s not a queue of people lining up for these jobs, so I decided to stay on for another year. 

“It wasn’t a good start the first week I took the job because we had six senior lads who decided to step away; three left to go to Copany Rovers, one went back to Erne Wanderers, one moved to Dublin, and one left to play with Westport down in Mayo. It’s unfortunate but we have to move on.” 

For Byrne, now it’s about mixing a crop of successful youth players in with his senior squad. 

“It’s not ideal to have six lads leaving the team on your first week but what it does is it gives young players a chance to come in,” he told Donegal Live.  

“We have Ryan Hegarty now involved with the Saturday team and he’ll be a great addition considering he’s been involved with a lot of these young players at underage. 

“So, the plan is to give the youth players a chance, they’ll definitely be needed and we hope to develop them and make them top players in the future as the season goes on.” 

With regards to last season, it was acknowledged that it was always going to be a difficult year competing in a division with Bonagee United and Letterkenny Rovers – two sides who previously played in the Ulster Senior League. 

But the Donegal Town side will take positives from last year and hope they can build for the upcoming season. 

“I think looking at our own season this year we’re still going to have a tough season with Milford and Castlefin in our league. So, it’s going to be a tough division although what might help us is that there is going to be a lot of local derbies with teams in north Donegal that will be taking points from each other in big games," he said.

“Look, we might not have as much strength in depth as other clubs but we have a very good crop of about 16 players that are very dedicated to the team and are now hitting their prime in their mid-20s, and if we can add a few other players to the squad after the GAA season is over, there’s no reason why we can’t have a fine group of players competing together.”