There will be a bumper crowd at O’Donnell Park on Sunday for Donegal’s match with Mayo and there should be a great atmosphere and a good battle.
Both teams have been in great form so far and it could be a fine game of football.
Donegal traditionally don’t have a brilliant record in O’Donnell Park although two of the last four matches in Letterkenny have led to victories.
And while Donegal were beaten by Tyrone last year, they did make 11 changes before that match.
For years the county struggled to win matches in O’Donnell Park and it didn’t make a lot of sense as it’s a fine pitch and the senior team would have trained there plenty over the years.
I drove past the pitch during the week and it looks great.
Mayo folk will arrive early in their thousands and it will be a busy day.
At the moment in time, it looks like Donegal’s championship match with Down will be in Letterkenny.
There’s some hope it will be in MacCumhaill Park but the word coming out of Ballybofey is that it will be much later in the year before the pitch is ready.
With that in mind, I think Donegal will be keen to go out and get a victory on Sunday and not give Down any extra hope for April.
The performance last time out against Kerry was good and Donegal do look sharp for this stage of the season.
Daire Ó Baoill has picked up an injury that is going to sideline him for a number of weeks and that’s a real shame.
Daire has started the year with intent and he definitely would have started on Sunday.
However, there will be time to come back and with a wrist injury, he will still be able to look after his conditioning.
His loss will be someone else’s gain and the Donegal panel is steadily getting stronger.
The likes of Oisin Gallen and Michael Murphy will be aiming to get more minutes this week and Mayo as always will put it up to Donegal.
It will be a strange day for Paul Durcan who is now on Andy Moran’s coaching ticket.
He played under Jim McGuinness and alongside Colm McFadden and Neil McGee for many years but he is in the opposite camp now.
We saw with Monaghan last year, that Andy Moran likes his team to play on the foot front and he will want to put Donegal’s strong ball carriers under pressure high up the field.
All in all, it should be a really good game that will probably go down to the wire and I think Donegal will probably just edge through.
Division 1
It should be another good weekend in Division 1 with three lively matches down for decisions.
Galway travel to Tralee to take on Kerry. I’m sure Padraic Joyce was delighted that his men managed to come away from Armagh with a victory.
They are down a lot of men and Armagh were the better side but Galway came good.
Their young lads have been impressive but I would expect Matthew Tierney and Shane Walsh to be in from the start this time.
Jack O’Connor didn’t appear too bothered that his Kerry side lost to Donegal.
But if he only has two points from three games then he won’t be happy.
I’d be surprised if David Clifford isn’t back in the team this week and with home advantage, I’d be expecting the men from the Kingdom to win.
Dublin host Monaghan in Croke Park on Saturday evening and this is a clash between two teams who have struggled and no points to their name so far.
Monaghan look destined for Division 2 at this stage. They’re rushing the Scotstown boys back into the team but Conor McCarthy is still out and they just don’t appear to have the required strength-in-depth.
Dublin haven’t got into their stride yet under Ger Brennan and have lost to Donegal and Mayo.
It was interesting to hear Brennan come out so strongly after that match and threaten a cull of some of his senior players.
A message like that can go two ways.
It could be a warning shot and a notice that players need to buck up their ideas.
Or maybe he has seen that the right culture isn’t play, and change is needed regardless of whether big names have to go.
It’s never a great look when a manager is calling out players and even if some get a stay of execution, there could be trust broken that will be hard to repair.
If Con O’Callaghan is back, you’d imagine Dublin will have too much.
The other game on Sunday is Roscommon against Armagh and this is a big fixture in the Hyde.
The Rossies have one win to their name and they’ll know how important their home games are.
Armagh will be smarting after losing to Galway but they are still down some key men.
It’s a match that Roscommon really have to win and they might just do it.
In Division 2, Tyrone and Cavan are both under pressure for points.
Cavan have battled well but have nothing to show for their efforts.
Tyrone are gradually getting their main men back and they should have too much for the Breffni side.
Fermanagh
We have a big game with Fermanagh this Sunday as we take on Clare in Brewster Park in Division 3.
Both sides have lost their first two games so there isn’t much room for error now.
We would be frustrated with how our first two games have gone against Wexford and Sligo.
In fairness to the boys, they have worked hard in training over the last fortnight to try and put things right.
We are going to have to be more clinical in front of the posts if we are to get something from the match.
I’ve watched Clare’s first two games and they have plenty of good young talent in their team.
They asked questions of Down and Westmeath so it’s going to be a tough game for us and hopefully we can get out first victory.
Trench Cup
It was disappointing that the ATU Donegal team lost out in the Trench Cup semi-finals last week.
ATU Donegal had won the Division 2 League and were fancied to go all the way in the championship.
They had been in good form but were well beaten by Mary Immaculate College in the semi-final in a high-scoring game.
That is a pity as there’s a lot of young talent in the ATU Donegal team who will still be at the college next year and they would benefit from playing in the Sigerson Cup.
However, they came up short and will be hoping for better in the Trench Cup next year.
The ATU freshers team did beat Trinity College on Monday night and have a semi-final coming up.
There was also disappointment for St Eunan’s College in the MacLarnon Cup.
They were also a fancied side after beating Aquinas, Belfast in the group stages.
However, in terrible conditions at the Dub, St Eunan’s lost out by 2-12 to 0-5.
The St Eunan’s team didn’t do themselves justice and they will be disappointed.
I’m told there was a strong Under 16.5 team at St Eunan’s College this year and they pushed St Pat’s Maghera all the way in the Rannafast Cup.
They should have a strong team next year and hopefully they will get a crack at MacRory Cup football.
The final of the MacRory took place last Sunday with ten thousand people attending in Armagh which is remarkable.
Abbey CBS from Newry fought back to get a draw against St Patrick’s Academy from Dungannon.
Abbey Vocational School from Donegal Town only lost out after extra-time against Dungannon so they really weren’t that far away.
