BY MATTHEW WILSON

Milford United boss Noel Gillespie is hoping his outfit can challenge for promotion this year in what’s expected to be a competitive TDA Appliance Division One.

The Milford men finished middle of the pack in the Division last time out, concluding the season in sixth place.

Gillespie has since rounded the troops ahead of another campaign and he’s expressed that preparations are going well ahead of Sunday’s opener against Gweedore United.

“It’s gone well, we trained a good bit but we haven’t played many friendlies as it hasn’t suited between work, holidays and the GAA. Between the two teams we played about three friendlies but the numbers have been positive at training.”

The Milford manager has added Dylan Dorrian to his squad ahead of the new campaign, signing from Fanad United.

On top of this, he’s managed to keep hold of the majority of last season’s panel who he hopes can help to guide the younger players that are within the squad.

“We’ve more or less the same squad. We gained Dylan Dorrian from Fanad United and we’ll have a lot of young players that will be playing that got a bit of experience at it last year.”

“Caolan McGettigan is back with us and Joey Cullen is back fully fit. The experience of those two will be invaluable to the young boys. We have boys like Cathal McGettigan and Kyle Black as well. They’re the experienced players that we’re hoping to carry us through along with the young boys.”

The competition within Division One is expected to be fierce but Gillespie is hoping his outfit can compete in the league in order to try to push for the promotion places.

The Milford boss feels the side lacked goals last time out and thinks if they can address this issue then they’d be aiming to challenge towards the top end of the table.

“We struggled to score goals last year and in the year ahead we really have to look at ways to score more goals. If we can do that then I don’t think we’ll be far away from challenging for the top three spots, we’d definitely be looking at that.”

“I’d say Ballybofey United, Cappry and Gweedore Celtic will be some of the top sides in the Division but we’d be hoping to be up around there to challenge them.”