BY RYAN FERRY
DONEGAL senior footballer Shane O’Donnell is enjoying his team’s early season form and wants to keep their winning run going.
O’Donnell and his teammates have won their first three matches and top Division 1.
They are on course to reach a League Final, but it was a similar scenario last year and their form tailed off towards the end of the campaign.
However, their Ulster Championship quarter-final with Down on April 26 isn’t until four weeks after the Division 1 decider this year.
Donegal have a tough match against Armagh in the Athletic Grounds but a win there will leave them in a strong position and O’Donnell says the panel are keen to keep winning matches.
“Yeah I suppose you want to keep the momentum going.
“There’s a great buzz over in training when things are going well and we’re winning games.
“We just want to keep pushing on, and if that takes us to a league final, then that’s great.
“We just want to keep winning games.
“I think when you look back on last year the Preliminary Round probably did have a factor on things but we still ended up losing a couple of games that we shouldn’t have.
“We’ll see how we get on but we will need a good performance to get anything against Armagh.”
Donegal lost to Armagh in the championship in 2022 and in the league in 2023 but other than that they have a super record against the Orchard county over the last ten years.
That said, they were fortunate to come away with a draw from their last league game in the Athletic Grounds in 2024 when O’Donnell struck a last-gasp leveller.
“I was just recovering from the flu at that time.
“I was only back training on the Thursday night.
“I could have had a goal as well but I hit the woodwork. I’ll hopefully get a few more next weekend.”
Sunday’s game, which throws in at the later time of 3.45pm, is heading for a sell-out at the Athletic Grounds.
Armagh are under pressure after losing their last two games and O’Donnell acknowledges they will be determined to win.
“It will be tough. They were beat by Roscommon and that probably makes it even tougher for us.
“It’s always a hard place to go. We will get the bodies right and everyone will be pushing for a place at training.
“Hopefully we can put in a good performance for the people that are travelling up to support us.”
