Glenswilly’s Ciaran Bonner
BY RYAN FERRY
VICTORY for Glenswilly against Malin this weekend will see them qualify for the quarter-finals of the Donegal Senior Championship, and team manager Michael Canning is determined to achieve that goal this Sunday.
Glenswilly just about made it to the last eight last year with a narrow win over St Michael’s on the final day of the group stages.
However, having already defeated Gaoth Dobhair in May, they can book their place in the knockout stages if they get the better of the Inishowen men this weekend.
“We’re hoping to win and it is a must-win game in our eyes,” said Canning.
“That will see us qualify with a game to spare, so we’ll be going out all guns blazing.”
Canning has introduced a number of new players to his panel this year like Christopher McMonagle, Paul O’Brien and Ethan Sweeney, while Ryan Hunter is back after a long injury lay-off.
They sit mid-table in Division 1 and although they are out of contention for league honours, Canning is satisfied with how his team’s season is going.
“We’ve been going ok. We haven’t had much access to the county players, and I think the last time we were at full-strength was for the Gaoth Dobhair game.
“We’ve just kept ticking over and we have tried to strengthen our panel by giving some of our fringe players plenty of action. That has brought them on a lot and it should give us a stronger panel.”
It has been a baptism of fire for new Malin manager Liam ‘Baker’ Bradley and his team are currently bottom of Division 1.
Bradley’s assistant, John McLaughlin, says Malin will be at full-strength, but acknowledges that they will be up against it in Foxhall.
“It’s not going to be easy and in Ciaran Bonner, Murphy, Gallagher and ‘Copper’ (Gary McFadden); they have four of the best players in the county. They are all tall, strong players,” said McLaughlin.
“Murphy can win games singe-handedly, and Neil Gallagher is probably just as good as him in club football. About four years ago, we played them in a play-off and they put them both in at full-forward at lumped high balls in. The game was over after five minutes. Hopefully we’ll do a lot better than that on Sunday.”
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