ST MICHAEL’S goalkeeper Mark Anthony McGinley feels the experience in their side has been a key factor in their good start to the Senior Championship, but they aren’t getting ahead of themselves.
It was an eye-catching 4-11 to 1-10 win over Ardara in Pearse Memorial Park on Sunday for the men from The Bridge and it brings them to four points after two games.
They have a near fully fit squad which has been a rarity, but McGinley is staying grounded.
“It probably wasn’t as comprehensive as the score line said,” McGinley told the Donegal News.
“The last two goals within a minute through Carlos O’Reilly and Ciaran Kelly kind of killed the game.
“We were expecting a one or two point game because we’ve been up in Ardara before and it’s always close, it was a tight game before those goals.
“It’s probably one of the first years up until this point that, touch wood, we’ve had a fully fit squad and you see the importance of that with the likes of Daniel (McLaughlin), Andrew Kelly, Michael Cannon and Antoin (McFadden) all coming off the bench and they would start most years for us.
“Then Michael (Langan) coming back in from the Donegal panel is a real lift and he takes a lot of attention which opens space for other boys.
“We’re at a stage now where we have a lot of experience in the team and that helps too that they’re comfortable and happy to take their scores.”
Dungloe are this weekend’s visitors to The Bridge and they are another unbeaten side after disposing of Aodh Ruadh in Rosses Park.
It represents a great opportunity for two sides that didn’t make the top eight last year to possibly even reach a top four spot and avoid the preliminary quarter-final, so there is plenty at stake today.
“Dungloe have had a great start and they beat two Division 1 teams but at home we’ll be looking for a good performance and hopefully get the two points, we’ll be under no illusion that they’ll be a big physical side with good defenders so we’re probably looking at a tight game but hopefully we can get the two points.
“The last time I think we played them in the championship was a quarter-final in MacCumhaill Park in 2014 so we haven’t played them for a couple of years.
“But they’re always a tough side and they’ll be dogged and strong and they always have a few good forwards and if you’re not at it then they’ll punish you so it’ll be a close game.
“There isn’t much between the rest of the teams outside the top two and it is a cliché but it’s all on the day.
“We’ve just been looking towards the next game and that’s Dungloe so we’ll not get too far ahead of ourselves, we have a very experienced team and we’ve had a full panel so if we do manage to get to that week off it’ll be good to recover and benefit some of the older boys.
“But if we don’t win this weekend we could end up looking towards a relegation battle so we’re not getting too far ahead.”
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