By Matthew Wilson
Naomh Conaill manager Martin Regan has praised the performances of his younger players during this year’s Division 1 campaign.
Naomh Conaill were in action on Sunday afternoon as three late scores secured St Eunan’s a win over them at Davy Brennan Memorial Park.
Despite the defeat, Regan took positives from the display where a number of young players stood out.
Unavailability of individuals this season has left the Naomh Conaill boss to call upon these youthful stars to step up to the plate during the league campaign.
But they’ve managed to do this which will strengthen the county champions hand and Regan has been pleased with their showings.
“We were down a lot of boys and it wasn’t by choice that we played a lot of those lads during the league but we’re really pleased with them all.
“They all really put their hands up. Stephen McDevitt was excellent today and Daithi Molloy, two minors in the club, I thought were superb and they all really put their hand forward for sure.”
Following Donegal’s exit from the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship last weekend, the Glenties men will now get their county contingent back to club action.
However, they’ll be without Finnbarr Roarty and Shea Malone for the next number of weeks as they’ve both been granted sanctions to play football in the United States.
Roarty will link up with Padraig Pearses in Chicago while Malone will line out for Donegal Philadelphia.
Ciaran Thompson made his return to the field last weekend at Croke Park for Donegal following his lengthy lay-off through injury.
The Naomh Conaill manager stated that it’ll be great to get Thompson back involved and they’ll use the next number of weeks to get their county players integrated back into the setup.
“Yeah, they’re (Finnbarr Roarty and Shea Malone) gone for a few weeks and we probably won’t see them until championship time.
“It’ll be good to get Ciaran (Thompson) back. Ciaran will need a few games as well so we’ll play a few challenge games to get him integrated back and to get big Kieran (Gallagher) a few more games.
“We’ll be pleased to get a few boys back and we’re obviously down a few as well.
“We’ve another league game against Gaoth Dobhair on Thursday night and I think the Championship draw is on Wednesday evening so there’s plenty to look forward to over the next couple of weeks.”
The Donegal CCC have confirmed that the draws for the Michael Murphy Sports and Leisure Club Football Championships will take place this Wednesday, July 1 at 7.05pm.