BY RYAN FERRY
IT’S a trip back to Dr Hyde Park for the Donegal senior footballers on Sunday, and this time there will be no great qualms about making the journey to Roscommon.
Donegal played Mayo at the Hyde last year in their supposedly ‘neutral’ group phase match.
It proved to be a memorable outing as Ciaran Moore scored a brilliant late winner which dumped Mayo out of the Championship.
Jim McGuinness’s post-match thoughts garnered attention as he hit out at the unfair venue choice and said he didn’t like ‘the fact that our supporters are always being taken advantage of’.
His comments weren’t overly popular and the CCCC Chairman Brian Carroll, who just happens to hail from Roscommon, defended the staging of the game.
Donegal will have had plenty of time to source a hotel for this week’s match and a sizeable crowd are expected to hit the road early on Sunday morning.
Apart from a poor performance in 2023 when Paddy Carr had just stepped away, the county have a fine record at the Hyde and they will be fancied to claim another result this time out.
A break last week was welcome for all parties after a busy start to the season but the feel-good factor remains from a positive opening to the campaign.
The draw with Galway a fortnight ago was a peculiar one in that it was Donegal’s poorest display of the season to date and yet there was more satisfaction to take from it than some of the victories collected earlier in the campaign.
Six points down with a man sent off, the outlook was bleak for Donegal in Fr Tierney Park.
However, they managed to dig in and stay in the contest.
Galway measure up well in midfield against Donegal’s big men but they took over when needed and Michael Murphy made a huge impact when introduced.
The Tribesmen were down some influential players in Damien Comer, Cillian McDaid, and Shane Walsh but Donegal probably had a weaker hand to select from.
In the end, there were plenty of positives to take but also a few issues to be ironed out.
There were difficulties on the kick-out in the first half while some of the less experienced players struggled with the physicality and intensity brought by Galway.
Donegal’s discipline was uncharacteristically off as well. Not only did they pick up a black card and a red but they also had a free from the middle of the field brought up fifty metres and that led to a handy score.
The slippery O’Neill’s size five doesn’t suit a Donegal side who want to run the ball hard and keep a high scoring efficiency so all in all, it was a good result on a day when the skillset didn’t hit their usual heights.
Roscommon’s solid start to the season has raised eyebrows.
They have been talked up before in previous years and dumped Tyrone out of the championship in 2024 but have struggled to put a real campaign of substance together.
Davy Burke got a tune out of the team for a while but his tenure petered out tamely.
With Donie Smith and Ciaran Murtagh stepping aside, and the low profile Mark Dowd taking over as bainisteoir, there was no burning anticipation to see what the primrose and blue would offer in 2026.
Dowd did persuade the respected Jason Sherlock to join his coaching ticket and after an underwhelming FBD League, they have upped the ante considerably in the NFL.
They could easily have got something from their opener with Kerry and have followed up with good wins over Monaghan, Armagh, and Galway.
And just when they appeared to be building momentum, they delivered a flat display against Dublin two weeks ago.
The Dubs had underperformed in the first four rounds, and were always likely to improve. However, the ease at which they got through Roscommon was alarming.
They posted the first 1-13 of the match and a Dublin side that were maligned for a failure to score two-pointers were lofting over from outside the arc with little pressure put on them.
That will have killed off some of the early-season hype. But we have seen before how one poor result doesn’t have to derail a league campaign and Roscommon will be keen to respond this Sunday.
The Rossies do carry a goal threat with Daire Cregg and Diarmuid Murtagh two of the top inside forwards in the country.
Robert Heneghan has impressed in his breakthrough year while St Brigid’s duo Conor Hand and Ben O’Carroll will add to their attacking threat.
All Star Enda Smith appears to be getting back to his best and he will take plenty of watching in the Hyde. Donegal’s one-on-one defending has been praised so far this year but it will get a real test on Sunday.
Keith Doyle competed well in the air against the towering Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne from Dublin but Donegal will feel they can have joy in that sector.
They will also see opportunities against a determined but inexperienced Roscommon backline.
A League Final will be secured with one more win from two games and it appears that Donegal have their eyes on a date at Headquarters on March 29.
That will mean three games on successive weekends and there would be solid rationale to going with a strong side in the Hyde, resting a few players against struggling Monaghan and then going with the Sunday best again for a potential decider.
There are injuries and players coming back so those minutes will all have to be monitored and the Under 20 Championship also lingers in the background.
Finnbarr Roarty didn’t feature last year during the group phase and it was clear that McGuinness has senior plans for him. The likes of Conor McCahill, Turlough Carr, and Kevin Muldoon will soon find out where they are in the pecking order.
With the championship beginning to peer over the horizon, things are taking shape and players will have to make the most of opportunities afforded to them.
Roscommon will look upon this match as a good chance to bounce back and demonstrate that they are better than that Dublin showing.
However, they haven’t hit the level that Donegal have been operating at so far this year and if McGuinness goes strong, his team should have the quality to seal a Division 1 final berth.
