BY MATTHEW WILSON
GAOTH Dobhair’s Stephen ‘Donna’ McFadden stated that they want to maintain their momentum as they prepare for their latest challenge in the Senior Football Championship.
Gaoth Dobhair made the long trip to Pairc na nGael last Saturday for a meeting with Naomh Columba in Round 2 of the competition.
Having lost to Glenfin last time out, Brendan Doherty’s charges were hoping for their first win.
But it was the Magheragallon men who prevailed and McFadden was pleased with the outcome on Saturday evening.
“It’s good to get the win. Coming up here to Glen, it’s a long journey for us but it’s good to get out of here with the two points and work on the next game ahead of us.”
The visitors enjoyed a bright opening stanza in this encounter which saw them enter the interval with a healthy ten-point cushion.
Naomh Columba, playing a Senior Football Championship game on home soil for the first time in 18 years, managed to claw their way back into contention in the second half.
However, Gaoth Dobhair kept the scoreboard ticking over at the other end to secure an important away win.
“Yeah, we knew that in the first ten minutes they’d come out at full tilt. We slowed down the game, controlled it at our own pace and broke them over and over again.
“In the second half, I think we slipped away a bit and let them back into the game a bit. But we got over the line so that’s all that matters.”
It’s been a mixed campaign to date for Ronan Mac Niallais’s side. They landed the All-Ireland Gaeltacht title in June courtesy of a win over Wolf Tones in the showpiece.
However, this was followed by relegation from Division 1 in the All-County League which would’ve been a big disappointment for the group.
Since then, they’ve made a perfect start to their Senior Football Championship campaign, recording two wins from two, and they’ll be delighted with how the competition has begun.
“We had our different emotions throughout the league, we were struggling.
“We went to the Gaeltacht, we were lucky to win that. That kind of set us back rather than pushing us on and we lost a lot of lads over the games.
“But we’re starting to get everyone back, getting a good strong depth and everything is starting to roll on now. With two wins from two, we’ll be rolling into the third week.”
This Sunday, the Magheragallon outfit will play host to Sean MacCumhaills in Round 3 of the Senior Football Championship.
Sean MacCumhaills commenced their campaign with a defeat away to Dungloe before sharing the spoils with St Eunan’s on home soil last time out.
Donegal star Oisín Gallen wasn’t involved in the meeting with the Letterkenny men, and it remains to be seen whether he’ll feature this weekend.
At the time of speaking, McFadden and his Gaoth Dobhair side were still awaiting their opponents for Round 3 of the group stage.
But he insisted that they’ll be putting in the work to ensure they’re fully prepared for whoever came their way this weekend.
“Absolutely, we’ll get two good training sessions in now on Tuesday and Thursday and whoever we get in the draw, we’ll be ready to go.”