By Shaun Casey

THE old adage of goals win games usually rings through and Glenfin’s ability to rattle the net has helped them climb to fifth place in the Division One table, three points behind league leaders Naomh Conaill.

In the last five outings, the Donegal club has recorded 15 goals and won four of those clashes. And they’ve done that without their talisman Gerard Ward as joint manager David Carroll explains.

“We were met with a blow two weeks before the start of the season, Gerard Ward, who would be the top marksman for us for the last 10 years, suffered a broken arm in a challenge game.

“That was a bit of a blow for us but the rest of the lads to be fair to them have stepped up and where there was a fear at the start of the year that we might struggle for scores, we’ve actually done fairly well.

“A couple of young lads are coming in and then you had good players that were there the last few years as well that have stepped up as well. Last year we might have felt we just weren’t clinical enough in front of goals and this year it definitely clicked.”

Glenfin have enjoyed a fantastic campaign and achieved their first objective of the season by securing their Division One status.

“Coming up to Division One now it’s exactly what we were looking for. We didn’t want to come up to Division One and yo-yo back down, it just wouldn’t have been great.

“So we did put a big emphasis on having a good start to the league and seven from 10 (wins), we’re happy with that.

“We’ve lost to Glenties, St Eunan’s and Ballyshannon away so there’s no real great shame in that.

“That was the target, to consolidate Division One this year and aiming for the top half so I think we achieved that.

“We’ve used 24, 25 players in the senior team so a good lot of boys have got a taste of Division One football so hopefully that’ll stand to them now going into the championship.”

Injuries aren’t a huge concern at the minute for Carroll as preparations will soon begin for the business end of the season, while former Donegal stalwart Frank McGlynn is still giving his all for the cause.

“We have a few niggles and a few boys away on holidays and this and that this last while.

“Nothing serious. Gerard’s coming back from injury and really, we’re not too bad apart from that.

“There’s a break of about five weeks going into championship so it’s just trying to manage that then and get the balance between a good bit of hard work at the start and then obviously mix in a few challenge games. That’s the plan from here on in.

“Frank’s a very important part of the squad.

“Frank didn’t start last week, it was nothing serious. He came through the last few games there so a week off or two weeks off does no harm for the likes of those boys at this stage of the season.”