By Michael McMullan

AFTER a tough start to season and four early defeats, Seán Mac Cumhaills have won three on the bounce ahead of this weekend’s visit of St Michael’s.

Manager Gary Wilson, recently appointed as a games development co-ordinator in Monaghan, is glad to have closer to a full hand to pick from.

Aside from Oisín Gallen’s county senior commitments, Donegal u-20 players Sean Martin (captain), Conor McGinty and Ruairí Callaghan missed the earlier games.

They are still without Joel Bradley Walsh who is contracted to Finn Harps. Kevin McCormack has been out injured since last autumn’s u-21 campaign, while Gavin Gallagher and Aaron Gilhooley have moved to Australia.

“It was fairly easy to look at the four losses and say ‘they’re finished’ but there was a lot of other contributing factors,” Wilson said.

“There were a lot of players missing and then you are handing the ball over to good minors in the club, telling them it’s up to them to pick up the baton.”

During their transitional period of asking new players to “lead the band” Mac Cumhaills opened their season with defeat against a Termon team who sit top of the table and were on the final of the All-Ireland Gaeltacht final last weekend.

“Barring seven minutes of mistakes and being punished by the breaches and the midfield mark thing, we were in full control of the game,” Wilson recalls. “For seven minutes, they led it and for the rest, we led it.”

Outside of a 4-16 to 0-11 defeat to Glenswilly, they’ve been within a kick in all the other games. It was one filed away as one to forget.

“The players owned that,” Wilson said. “It was just a lack of work-rate, they’d gave up, essentially, but we have been competing in every other game.”

In a narrow defeat to Gaoth Dobhair, there was a dispute over the interpretation of the three-up rule after a sending off with officials unsure about the latest rule tweak.

Against Naomh Conaill, they were without regular goalkeeper Eoin Gallen. After shipping an early Kevin McGettigan goal, the Glenties men added two points before Mac Cumhaills could get hands on the ball.

“We lost the game by five points,” Wilson added. “It was those small things that, when you are struggling, go against you.”

There was also an understanding that a return of key players and the experience they’d bring would be enough to tip the scales the other way. By their round five game against Kilcar, the u-20s were back in the fold.

Since then, the plans and principles have been the same. It was a matter of sticking to what was there.

“Slowly, we just started to get players back integrated into the team, those we’d class as our starters,” Wilson said of the turn.

“We haven’t done anything different. We had a good result away at Kilcar and we backed it up by beating Malin at home. Then, we defeated Glenfin, which would be the big derby, away then last week by a point. So, it’s been a nice turnaround, but there’s still a lot of work to do.”