By Niall Gartland

A TALENTED group of Donegal youngsters will take to the field in Saturday’s inaugural All-Ireland U20 final against Galway at Tubbermore.

Paul Gillespie, who takes the team alongside Dessie McNamara, says there’s no great secret behind their surge to the final. Instead, he attributes much of it to good old-fashioned hard work.

“It’s gone well for us, in fairness. We got the squad together just before Christmas, which hasn’t been easy with Leaving Cert and college commitments. We managed to get a few sessions in every week, the girls bought into it, and winning Ulster was a big boost as well.”

The Donegal U20s have been lying in wait since winning the Ulster final against Tyrone a month back. There was no All-Ireland semi-final; instead, they waited to see who came out on top of a group comprising Galway, Dublin, Cork, Meath and Mayo. As it turned out, Galway led the way and now stand between Donegal and the All-Ireland title.

“The winners of Ulster went through to the final, and whoever topped the group with teams like Galway and Dublin progressed as well.

“We had a bit of a wait, a four-week wait. We’ve been training away and the girls are playing with their clubs as well every Sunday.”

Gillespie and his co-manager Dessie McNamara have themselves come through the ranks of the underage teams in the county. There’s been some heartache along the way but there’s no doubting the resilience of their players.

“A couple of years back, we were asked to come in and help out the U14 girls. That was about three years ago. We did a stint at that, then we took the U16s for three years, and we decided to give this a crack. I was coaching our senior ladies and still am at Ballyshannon.

“A good few of these girls lost three Ulster finals, but they were still reaching finals and they’ve always shown a desire to come back and go again.”

Gillespie is also content with the choice of venue for the game – Kilcoyne Memorial Park in Tubbercurry in Sligo.

“It’s the same distance whether you’re coming from Connemara or Malin.

“We thought it would be in Tubbercurry, to be honest with you. We played Clare there last year in an All-Ireland semi-final and it was staged there. It’s a very good venue.”