OLDTOWN Celtic manager Tam McLaughlin is expecting the competition to be fierce in the Glencar Inn Saturday Division One this season as his side aim to win their fifth league title in-a-row.

McLaughlin is back in the Oldtown Celtic dugout for another term and he’s pleased with how things have gone for his side aheading into the new season, winning their Area Section of the Voodoo Cup to advance to the last four of the competition.

“We won our Area section in the Voodoo Cup so we’re into the semi-final now. We beat Letterkenny Rovers on penalties and then we beat Glencar 4-2 in the final.”

“The good thing is there’s no games in that now until April so we can put our full focus on the league now.”

During the off-season, McLaughlin’s side have lost the services of three players from last-term but have managed to keep the core of the squad according to the Oldtown Celtic boss.

As well as this, they’ve recruited a number of youthful players in the form of Odhran Kane, Jack Dwyer, Jack Dooher and Thomas Dooher, all of whom McLaughlin is hoping to integrate into the setup this year.

“The boys have been working hard and we got a few new people in. We signed a couple of young boys but we lost a couple of big players like Michael Doherty who has gone back to Bonagee.”

“Sean Cleary has signed with us but he’s working in Manchester so he’ll only play a certain amount of games. Drew Connolly, our player of the year last season, has also re-signed but he’s taking a lot of time out so those three will be big misses.”

Oldtown Celtic have enjoyed a huge amount of success within the Glencar Inn Saturday Division One over the last number of years, getting their hands on the previous four league titles.

They’ve created a real winning mentality at the Letterkenny based club over the last couple of seasons and got their title defence off to the perfect start last weekend, defeating Glencar Celtic 5-0 in a repeat of the Voodoo Cup Area Final.

Despite their dominance in recent editions of the competition, the Oldtown Celtic manager stated that getting over the line in the league is never straightforward.

He expressed that the Division is strengthening each season and feels that this will be the toughest campaign to date.

“We’ve won it the last four years. Everybody thinks it’s easier but it gets harder every year and this year it’ll be a lot harder. Some good teams have come up in the form of Letterkenny Rovers, Erne Wanderers and Kilmacrennan Celtic. There were also five or six good teams already in it”, said McLaughlin.

He continued,“people always say that we won it easily but we don’t. Last year we won it by six points, two teams pulled out of games at the end of the season so we were given six points.”

“Three seasons ago we played Kildrum in a play-off in the last game of the season to see who would win it. It’s never easy, there’s too many good teams in it.”

The Letterkenny side will be setting out with the aim of clinching their fifth Saturday Division One title in-a-row this season.

However, the Oldtown Celtic boss is expecting the competition for the silverware to be fierce within the Division this time out.

McLaughlin feels that eight teams could be in with a shout of sealing the title this year and with the strength and depth of the teams throughout the league, he insists that their long-standing unbeaten record won’t last long.

“Kildrum will be one of your biggest competitors again this year. Someone told me Strand Rovers have signed some good players so you’d expect them to be back up there again.

“You also have Donegal Town, St Catherine’s and Drumbar, who won their Area Final so they’ll be strong this season. I reckon the league could go about eight different ways this year.”

“One of the boys said that last Saturday’s win made it 61 games undefeated in the league over the last couple of years but as I said, that won’t last long because the teams are far too strong this year.”