BY RYAN FERRY

Few teams in Donegal have lost as much firepower in recent years than St Mary’s, Convoy but Laurence McMullan and his team are aiming to take the lessons from the league on board and win some games in the Junior ‘A’ Championship.

John Toye, Joe McGill, Liam Toye, and Paddy Dolan are among some of their best attackers who are no longer playing for the club. Others have tried to fill the void and while they failed to win any games in Division 2 this season, McMullan does see signs of improvement.

“Any team that loses six or seven men that would start over the space of two years would find that difficult but the young boys are getting better with every game.

“It was a difficult league campaign, not getting over the line in any game.

“But of all the league games we played, we were in the mix heading into the final quarter in all but two. Unfortunately we couldn’t get over the line whether that was inexperience or just making the wrong decision in the moment.

“Division 2 is where we want to be. Unfortunately we are down again but we will take a lot of learning from it but we showed during the league that we have potential, we just need to be more consistent and take our chances when we have momentum.

“If we have all our players here who are available fit then we shouldn’t be too far away but trying to keep everyone on the field for the next six weeks is important.”

Convoy have been training hard in recent weeks and McMullan knows it’s important that they start strongly.

“We have Lifford and Robert Emmets at home and then we are away to Urris and Naomh Bríd. We haven’t won a game all year so the first one against Lifford is important to try and get a bit of confidence back and build from there.”

McMullan feels the league isn’t always the best barometer when it comes to the championship as junior teams can be stronger come the autumn.

He feels that there are a number of strong teams that could beat any side if they hit form but concedes that one side are strong favourites.

“There’s only one real stand-out contender in Carndonagh obviously.

“I felt they didn’t really show up last year in the final and they went well in Division 2 this year.

“Conor O’Donnell is in flying form. He was carrying a knock last year and you can see the difference now.

“They’ll be up there. Naomh Bríd were beat in the play-off but are decent.

“Letterkenny Gaels will be good if they can get their main men back and Naomh Ultan as well.”

Manager: Laurence McMullan

Captain: John Doherty

Last Year: Junior ‘A’ semi-finalists

Star Man: Anthony Browne

One to Watch: Oran Patterson.