BY MATTHEW WILSON
NAOMH Conaill manager Michael O’Malley feels that his side are meeting a team with massive momentum in the form of Termon this Sunday in the last four of the Under 21 Championship.
Following an opening day defeat in the competition, Naomh Conaill have recovered by winning their remaining two group games before coming out on top against St Eunan’s in the quarter-finals on Sunday to progress to the last four.
The pair had only met week prior in their final group game, with the Glenties men securing a seven-point win on that occasion.
O’Malley was anticipating a much tougher assignment the second time around and he certainly got that; however, Naomh Conaill came good when it mattered to get over the line.
“It was a massively tough game, exactly what you’d expect from St Eunan’s. We played them the weekend before there wasn’t a whole lot at stake so we expected them to come a lot harder last weekend and they did.”
“For a lot of the game, especially in the first half, they were on top of us. We had drawn level early in the second-half but for most of it afterwards, we traded the lead a couple of times.”
“It wasn’t until the last five minutes that we managed to put a bit of daylight between us.”
The Davy Brennan Memorial Park residents trailed their Letterkenny opponents by four points at the interval on Sunday and required real character after the restart to battle back.
Helped by some of their experience in Martin Regan’s senior side this term, this is something that the Glenties men have in abundance and they managed to lift themselves when it was needed.
“There’s a lot of lads there with experience in the senior team this year. They’re not strangers to having to fight back from deficits and it was obvious again at the weekend that they were about to lift the performance when it was required.”
The club’s senior side landing the Dr Maguire Cup and entering the Ulster Senior Club Championship accompanied by a few players participating in the MacRory Cup for Southwest Donegal left O’Malley with a few issues earlier in the competition.
As well as being without the service of a few players through injury, the Naomh Conaill boss stated that it’s been difficult but feels that the group should be in a better place now going forward.
“It’s been difficult. The senior season was long and only finished up the weekend before last. A lot of the lads would’ve been playing against Scotstown too.”
“We suffered with injuries at the beginning and through the group stage, we still had a few missing last weekend against St Eunan’s too.”
“With the senior team playing in Ulster, we didn’t have all of our players available for all of the group games which was difficult.”
“We managed to get through, we’re in a semi-final now and we should be in a better place. We mightn’t be back to full strength yet this weekend we’ll be a lot better than what we have been up to this point.”
Next up for Naomh Conaill is a semi-final clash with Termon this Sunday at Pairc Naomh Columba in Glenswilly.
The Burn Road residents have been motoring nicely in the Under 21 Championship to date, winning their three group games before coming through a thrilling tie against Aodh Ruadh in the last eight.
Following their Division 1 success and run to the Senior Championship quarter-finals at senior level this term, O’Malley feels that Termon are a team with real momentum and will be expecting a tough contest this weekend.
“Termon are a team that are going to have massive momentum. They would’ve gained massive momentum from winning Division 1 this year and beating St Eunan’s in the Senior Championship too.”
“They’ve had a very successful year and a lot of the players on their Under 21 team will have played a decent number of senior matches so they’ll come with massive momentum from that.”
