By Niall Gartland

DONEGAL hurling boss Mickey McCann says it is farcical that none of their supporters will be able to travel to Ballinascreen for their final league clash against Derry on Sunday.

The Oak Leafers will be allowed to bring in 400 of their own supporters through the dates following new guidelines from the GAA on allowing fans into matches in the Six Counties.

However, Donegal supporters won’t be allowed to cross the border with only 50 tickets allocated to the county, which will be spread among players, management and county board officials.

Donegal still have a chance of reaching the league final heading into Sunday’s match, so their manager is disappointed that they won’t have any fans there to cheer them on.

The GAA did announce yesterday (Wednesday) that 100 supporters will be allowed to attend club and county matches in the Republic from Monday onwards, but that’s not much good to Donegal this weekend.

McCann: “Of course it’s an advantage to Derry, especially in Ballinascreen. It’s a very compact stadium.

“It’s a rule we don’t agree with – we think the GAA should apply their rules equally across the 32 counties. It’s not Derry’s fault, it’s not the fault of the six counties – I think the GAA made a mistake. In previous months the rules applied equally for everyone and I think it’s farcical that there’s now one rule for some a different rule for another.”

Generally though, McCann is in a positive frame of mind heading into this weekend’s match as Donegal have performed superbly in the league and are level on points with Kildare and Mayo. Only the top team will achieve promotion, however, and it seems a fairly safe bet that the Lilywhites will take top spot as they still have two games remaining and seem to be operating on a higher level to the rest of the teams in Division 2B.

“I can’t see Kildare getting beaten to be honest. Our aim was to stay in the division, it’d be nice if Kildare slipped up but I think they’re a bit ahead of everybody in the division.

“Even if they do get beat in one of their remaining matches they still have the head-to-head over us. The way things are looking, they’re going to be champions, so even if we beat Derry this weekend, the two points mightn’t matter that much to us.”

There’s big pressure on Derry, however, as they’re yet to pick up any points with two games remaining. They have some seriously talented players like Cormac O’Doherty, and they beat Donegal twice in 2019 (once in the league followed by a more tense affair in the Christy Ring Cup), but they haven’t been going particularly well this time around and relegation is a possibility.

“I remember in the Christy Ring match, we were nine points up at half time and ended up losing by a point or two. We’d a very poor second half so that was disappointing, but at the same time there was nothing between the teams. If Derry put out their full contingent of players then they’re a serious team. They’ll be disappointed losing their first two matches so there’s big pressure on them to get a win.”