BY MATTHEW WILSON
KEADUE Rovers manager Patrick Bonner is anticipating a tough challenge when his side travel to Emerald Park to face St Catherine’s in the Premier Division this Sunday.
Keadue Rovers weren’t in action last weekend, with their last league encounter taking place 11 days ago when they shared the spoils against Glenea United in a 0-0 draw.
This was the Keadue men’s third successive draw since the league restarted at the turn of the year and their fifth in-a-row when matches prior to Christmas are factored in.
This represents how difficult of a team the Central Park residents have been to overcome this season however, the number of draws the side have been involved in, seven in total, comes with some frustration for manager Patrick Bonner.
“Generally things are going okay, it’s been a bit frustrating.”We’ve had a lot of draws but they’ve all been quite comfortable.
“Sometimes you’d think you were lucky to come out of a game with a draw but there hasn’t been many of those, if anything we were thinking we could’ve and should’ve won those games. From that point of view it’s been frustrating.”
The Keadue Rovers manager continued by discussing the ever-growing competitiveness within the Division, with the likes of Donegal Town and Glenea United providing some stern tests since their arrival to the league this season, while St Catherine’s, at the foot of the table, are also continuing to challenge all of the sides around them.
“The league is very competitive. In other years there would’ve been teams that may have been struggling in the league whereas this year St Catherine’s and Glenea are down the bottom but they’re not easy teams to play against or easy places to go.
“Nobody is beating them really well, they’ve actually been quite unlucky even against the top teams, they only got beat narrowly by them. They are very competitive even though the league may not reflect that.”
The West Donegal club’s five game unbeaten run is largely down to the side’s superb defensive record in the competition.
Only two teams in the top flight have conceded less goals to date than Keadue Rovers’ tally of 11 across their 10 league outings.
Speaking to the Donegal News, Bonner expressed that the defensive area of the pitch is something that they have worked on and feels that a bit more clinicalness at the other end of the field could help provide a positive shift in the side’s results.
“We’ve been pretty solid defensively which is something we’ve worked on and it is pleasing. As well as the goalkeeper and the back four are doing, everyone is working hard to make that happen.
“That’s ultimately what has gotten us all of those draws. We are creating chances, we’re not just sitting back. The issue is we’re just not converting enough of the chances.
“If we weren’t creating the chances I’d be concerned. If we could add a few more goals to the situation then it would make a massive difference.”
The Central Park outfit have suffered two significant losses to the side since the turn of the year, with Aidan Brennan linking up with Mickey Funston’s Bonagee United in January and Maurice McGee heading across the Irish Sea to the UK for his studies.
This accompanied by a couple of long-term injuries has left Keadue Rovers in a tricky spot at times of late however, they’re still lining out a side in both Saturday and Sunday football so they’ll be content.
“We weren’t working off the biggest squad to begin with, we’re running to squads here in Keadue. Generally speaking, it’s going well but there are weekends when we can be tight.
“We lost Aidan (Brennan) in January to Bonagee which was frustrating and we lost Maurice McGee to a college in the UK in January. We’ve had a couple of long-term injuries also in recent months so it has been a bit tough but we’ve always been able to put out a decent 11 and we’re still picking up results.”
Keadue Rovers are back in action this weekend when they make the trip to Killybegs to face St Catherine’s.
Speaking to the Donegal News, Bonner praised what Shaun Kelly has done at the Emerald Park side and having suffered a 2-1 defeat to them back in October, he’s aware of what the threat that they possess.
It’s a big encounter for both teams and a victory this Sunday for Patrick Bonner’s outfit would see them extend the gap from the bottom of the league table which they’ll be hoping for.
“St Catherine’s beat us earlier on in the year so we’re under no illusions, it’ll be a really tough game and we know it’s a tough place to go to. Shaun Kelly has done well there and he’s got them well drilled.
“It’s just more of the same, every game in this league you’ve to go and be competitive because if you don’t then you’ll be run out of the game. We’ll approach it the same way that we’ve approached every other game, try to do our best and hopefully get a result.
