“Every game is massive” says Dungloe boss

THE games are all coming thick and fast in Donegal, and every outing counts according to Dungloe boss Noel McBride as they prepare for a round two clash with Killybegs on Saturday afternoon.

After the opening round of fixtures last weekend, Dungloe currently sit second in the overall table, just behind St Eunan’s, having kickstarted their campaign with a home win over Sean Mac Cumhaill.

Now it’s all about building on the first day out when they travel to Killybegs, who suffered a first round defeat at the hands of league champions Four Masters.

“Over the next three weeks, the games are coming thick and fast so whatever work has been done is done in the build up to the first game. After that it’s just fine-tuning through the week and recovering as much as possible,” said McBride.

“Every game is massive and especially your home games, they’re massive in this format. You need to be getting at lminimum a win to secure your place in the last 16 so every game matters. You can’t overlook any of them and there’s no easy games.”

On the subject of the first day out, McBride was delighted with his team’s performance, especially coming up against 2024 All-Star winner and Donegal sharpshooter Oisin Gallen.

“We had a tough assignment at home to Sean Mac Cumhaill and we did a lot of work on them because obviously with Oisin Gallen coming to town and Jamie Keegan, they’re heavily stacked on the forwards end of it,” McBride continued.

“It was always going to be a very difficult task, and I felt the lads really stepped up to it in the second half and put in a great shift to get us up and running.”

Having earned promotion to the top tier of the league last season, Dungloe really pushed on in 2026 and ended up reaching the league final, where they just came up short against Four Masters.

“It’s been a very positive campaign to date for us,” McBride added, looking back at the entire season so far.

“We only got promoted from Division Two last year after eight years down there.

“To come up and have a successful league campaign, bleed in a couple of youngsters and compete against a very, very strong Four Masters side in the league final is very satisfying and it’s very positive for the club as a whole.

“We’re in a good place – there is a good, strong, committed group there and we’re taking every game as it comes now in the championship to see where we end up.”