Shaun Kelly and St Catherine's embrace tough road ahead in the Premier Division

Despite finishing the Donegal Premier Division in third place last season, St Catherine’s manager Shaun Kelly can’t ignore the quality of teams pushing for glory this season. 

After failing to win their first two matches in the league against last season’s champions Fanad United and Keadue Rovers, Kelly looks to take each week as it falls his way, saying it’s already been a tough start as he looks to quickly get players back into his setup following the conclusion of the GAA season.  

“It’s been tough for us at the minute, we’re only getting boys back into the swing of things with a lot of the players playing GAA with Naomh Columba, Kilcar, Killybegs, and Naomh Ultan,” he said. 

“So, we were slow in getting boys back, but it’s coming along, now it’s just about getting them up to speed. 

“We had a great win away to Greencastle in the FAI Junior Cup which was brilliant because we lost our first two league games against Fanad United and Kildrum Tigers, who finished first and second in the league last season.” 

St Catherine’s welcomes Bonagee United to Killybegs this weekend, one of the teams Kelly admits will be hovering around the top of the table when it comes to the crunch time of the season, citing them as one of the best sides in the league. 

However, Kelly says that playing against the best in the county is something of a positive rather than a negative. 

“Look, we know it’s going to be a difficult season with all the quality of teams in the Premier Division, and we can add Letterkenny Rovers and Bonagee to that, but our boys embrace that, we want to be in the top league playing against the best players and the best teams, and we’ll just have to see what happens.” 

While St Catherine’s challenged for the league the entire season last year, they eventually ran out of legs towards the last few months before Fanad stormed to a league title. 

Competing with the best wasn’t something he planned on, and knows with the quality in the division increased, it will be even harder this year. 

“Last season, we didn’t think we were going to be in a title challenge if we’re being honest, but we were right there up until the last few weeks when Fanad beat us,” he said. 

“This season we’re just going to take it game by game and try to get fitter and stronger the more the lads come back into the team, but we can’t ignore that there is some real quality in this league who are going to make it tough for us. 

“If we can stay in the league, that alone is a massive achievement because this league is nearly like an Ulster Senior League, so staying up is a real positive for us.”