The Donegal Minor Ladies team are hoping to secure a spot in the semi-finals of the Ulster Championship when they take on Antrim at the Burn Road on Saturday at 2.30pm.

James McGinley’s Donegal side have won their first two group games against Tyrone and Cavan, but they are still not assured of a spot in the last four.

A narrow defeat may be good enough to send them through this week, but McGinley’s side have built up good momentum over the last month and they don’t want that to slip at this stage.

“We possibly can afford to lose and still make it through, but we’re not even contemplating that,” said the Milford clubman.

“We have won our first two games, and it would take away a lot of our momentum if we lost on Saturday, so we want to put our best foot forward.

“A win would put us through as group winners and that would be a good place to be in.

“It’s a short and sweet competition. The semi-finals are due to take place on Bank Holiday Monday (May 6), and the final is the following Saturday.

“But we need to make sure we get out of the group first, and we won’t get anything easy against Antrim.”

McGinley’s team have had a busy workload recently, and he says it was more fine tuning this week as they gear up for the match with the Saffrons.

“There was a lot of football on last week for the girls.

“Three of them played last week for the seniors in the League semi-final down in Galway.

“There was also a double round of club fixtures on Good Friday and Bank Holiday Monday, so it’s up to us to manage that as best as we can.

“We had a light session on Tuesday, and we will probably do a wee bit more on Thursday night, but it’s just about making sure we’re ready to go.

McGinley says confidence is high in his team’s camp after they grinded out a 2-5 to 1-7 win over Cavan in their last game in Mountcharles two weeks ago.

“Cavan are a very strong team, and one of our aims when we set out at the start of the year was to beat them.

“That was a big win for the team, and it shows that what they have committed to is working.

“Now there were certain aspects of the game that we wouldn’t have been happy with and that we have to work on, such as the fact that we only scored seven times in total in the game.

“We will have to improve on that if we are to win this week.”

Antrim were beaten in their first game by Cavan, but they have improved since then and romped to victory over Tyrone in their last match which gives them a chance of progressing to the semi-finals heading into Saturday’s match in Termon.

McGinley said: “Antrim beat Tyrone by 22 points, and they are a strong and athletic team.

“Their full-back, wing-back, and midfielder are all playing for the Antrim senior team, and lined out last week as they beat Louth after extra-time in the Division 4 semi-final.

“They have a lot of promising players, and we will have to play very well to beat them.”