Liam O’Donnell signed for Letterkenny Rovers in 1986 after a chance meeting with Eunan Blake on the street.

O’Donnell had played for Keadue before that, but was now living in Letterkenny, and wanted to try his hand at the USL when it started up.

He linked up with Letterkennny Rovers and is still involved with them to this day.

“They were a very welcoming club and I never felt like an outsider. They started calling me ‘Keadue’ (which he still gets to this day) so I was never going to lose my roots completely.

“Eunan was a fantastic coach and a great manager. I learned so much from him and his assistant James Barclay. Liam Blake was a great club member too.

“I was 26 or so then and had played a good bit of football but it was Eunan who really taught me how to play in different positions. I was centre-forward at first, then centre midfield, and at centre-half which was probably my best position.

The late Eunan ‘Busty’ Blake

“Eunan had a great flair for breaking the game down, and he really honed in on the finer details, especially when it came to organising the defence.”

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