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Performance is key for O’Hare and Glen

GETTING the right performance is the mantra for Paul O’Hare and Naomh Columba as they gear up for Sunday’s final with Naomh Columba.

Speaking at Monday’s launch in Convoy, marauding corner-back Paul O’Hare wasn’t dwelling on the history books but holds the regret of not doing themselves justice in previous finals with Dungloe and Termon.

“We know what the big day is about,” he said. “The main thing we’ll be looking for on Sunday, is performance. If the performance is good enough to get us over the line, then it is. If it’s not, then it’s not.

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“We’ll be aiming to going out and give a good account of ourselves because it’s something we haven’t done in the last two finals.

“There’s boys there, even going back to 2011 (final defeat to St Naul’s), I don’t think they put on a good show that day either.”

After a league campaign that left them mid-table in Division Two, Naomh Columba have picked up the pace.

Injuries cleared up and Aaron Doherty returned from the Donegal senior squad. With county U20 players Shane Callaghan and Alex Cunnea also on board, training began to ramp up.

A 2-18 to 2-7 win over Milford kicked them into gear and they’ve won six games on the bounce.

Victory over Division Two champions Naomh Muire set up a quarter-final against Buncrana who secured a quarter-final spot by the skin of their teeth.

It was proof knock-out football is all on the day. Caolan McGonagle kicked two two-pointers with Kevin Jordan also raising an orange flag to nose Buncrana ahead with one minute to go.

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A goal from Paddy Byrne was the perfect response as Naomh Columba stepped out of a dark corner.

“We probably looked comfortable enough but we don’t like doing things easy as people like to remind us,” O’Hare (23) said about letting the game slip initially.

“Paddy got the goal and I know they were on top for a while towards the end but I think we deserved the win that day.

“That was a satisfying win because I think other years we might have crumbled under the pressure of that last two-pointer but that was a big battle for us.

“It’s all about Sunday, those games are in the past, Buncrana and Red Hugh’s (semi-final).

“It’s all good and well beating those teams but if we don’t put a performance together on Sunday against a very good Malin team, it’s worth nothing.”

Malin drew two of their games but go into Sunday’s final as the other unbeaten team in the championship.

After drawing with Naomh Pádraig, Uisce Chaoin in the group stages, they won the quarter-final meeting of the clubs. There was a two-point win over Buncrana in the group stages.

“Any team that beats that Muff team is a good team and they came through a very tough semi-final against Naomh Muire who will be playing in Division One next year.

“Any team that gets to the final is a good team; that’s the bottom line. You can name two or three players but at the end of the day they have two or three players that you mightn’t know that are going to (cause problems), so we have to be ready all over the field.

“There’s a big gap between ourselves and Malin distance-wise but we’ve probably played each other a good bit over the last few years and they’ve always been good battles and I’m sure Sunday is going to be another good bat

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