Cian Mulligan, Gaoth Dobhair. Photo: Donna El Assaad
GAOTH Dobhair manager Mervyn O’Donnell concedes that his team are not in a good place ahead of their crunch championship meeting with Glenswilly this Sunday at Magheragallon.
O’Donnell’s charges need to get something from the game if they are to stand a chance of reaching the quarter-finals.
However, they go into the match on the back of five defeats in-a-row and were hammered by 20 points against St Eunan’s last Sunday.
O’Donnell has a lengthy injury list, while he says that Odhran MacNiallais will not be back from New York in time for the game.
“It feels like it’s all falling apart at the last minute to be honest,” said a despondent O’Donnell.
“Odhrán told me that he would be back from America, but he’s not going to be, and I’m disappointed about that.
“Kevin Cassidy is away on a two-week family holiday, and his power will be a big loss.
“Wee Naoise (Ó Baoill) is out for four weeks with a hamstring injury, and Michael Carroll sprained his ankle against Four Masters last week. He can’t even jog on it at the moment.
“Kieran Gillespie is struggling with his hips and groin, and he’s only played a half-hour of football all year for the club.
“Then you have Peter McGee, who is away at a wedding in Portugal. He’s flying back for it, but he won’t be starting because we don’t know what shape he’ll be in.
“We couldn’t even push the lads at training this week for fear of adding to that list.”
Gaoth Dobhair have failed to perform in the championship in recent years despite bringing through a host of talented youngsters
They do have championship tradition and home advantage this week, and if there’s a kick in the team, O’Donnell hopes they will show it this Sunday.
“We were going well earlier in the year, and everything was in place for the lads.
“We got our 15 points in the league without our county players, and were cruising until they came back in, and everything has gone wrong since.
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