BY DÁIRE BONNAR
The Donegal minor ladies are in the Ulster Gold final this Saturday as they take on Monaghan in Newtownstewart.
With two groups, the group winners in each play in the Platinum final, while Donegal finished in second place behind Cavan and contest the Gold final, having taken wins over Derry, Tyrone and Fermanagh in the group of five.
Monaghan finished behind Antrim in Group B and will meet Declan McDermott’s side.
“We would have liked to get another crack at Cavan because one bad day and you’re no longer guaranteed to get to the A final,” McDermott said ahead of the game.
“We got beat by Cavan but we won three games out of four which isn’t bad, the final game against Fermanagh all the girls got game time.
“The start of the year we probably did target making the Gold final as our aim, this group of girls are ambitious and they have always competed well at this level so we’re happy enough with where we’re at.
“The girls have evolved since the start of November and we’ll give this a good shot on Saturday, if we can get a B title we’ll be happy.”
The team has been driven on by captain Sara Thomas from Four Masters, while Dungloe’s Elisha Boyle and Termon duo Niamh Boner and Maeve Brady have been impressing in recent weeks.
A win over the Farney side will give them an All-Ireland ‘B’ semi-final to look forward to, but a tight battle is expected this Saturday.
“This team would have faced Monaghan at Under-16 level and it would have been a close affair.
“Monaghan’s results have been funny because they beat Antrim twice despite Antrim finishing top and they lost to Armagh twice who finished below them.
“That section was very close so it’s hard to read into it but if they beat Antrim twice then they aren’t a bad side.
“It’s a big game, as I say after the Cavan game we were quite disappointed with our own performance and we reminded them what our targets were after that.
“The girls were down in the dumps after that game and I never seen them so low but it wasn’t our day but we put it right against Tyrone.
“They’ve put all their efforts into getting to this final, the Tyrone game was a big one because we really had to refocus and get back on the horse and credit to them, they’ve knuckled down and it makes selection for Saturday even harder for me.
“Every night at training there’s always someone else putting their hand up and you’re thinking they deserve a start. I can only start 15 but it’s not a bad headache to have come Saturday, we know the girls on the bench will be just as eager as the ones who start and it’s about the whole panel that are driving it on.”
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