Dowling excited by crunch semi-final clash

By Ryan Ferry

ST EUNAN’S midfielder Eoin Dowling welcomes the cut-throat nature of knock-out football and is eagerly awaiting Saturday nights semi-final clash with Gaoth Dobhair at MacCumhaill Park.

The Letterkenny side cruised through the group phase, with three wins and a draw, and then got the better of Dungloe last week.

After losing to Termon in the preliminary quarter-finals in 2025, there is a to go deep into this year’s championship and eventually land the Dr Maguire Cup.

The last time St Eunan’s met Gaoth Dobhair in championship football was the 2024 semi-final and Dowling and his teammates came through by one point. Another tight game is anticipated this time around.

“In some ways, it’s nice to know that you’re going into a game and if you don’t perform, you’re gone,” he said.

“It gives you a bit of extra push compared with the four group games when some matches just don’t feel like that big day out.

“It’s a big game for us after last year. It was a bit of a shock for us to go out in the prelim.

“We’re two games away from a championship and the next match is the big one.

“If you get to a final anything can happen, but winning semi-finals is never easy and we have seen that before.”

St Eunan’s were 1-15 to 0-4 up against Dungloe at half-time last week and played some great football in the first half.

However, they lost their way in the second half, posting three points, and were sweating as Christopher O’Donnell almost forced extra-time at the death with a rasping shot that just went wide.

“We went in at half-time and it was the standard team talk really. We just said the game wasn’t done yet,” Downing said.

Turnaround

“Nobody wants a turnaround like that, I’m sure there were plenty of worried fans watching on.

“We have a lot of work to do from that. It’s just unacceptable that second half.

“Everything went right for us in the first half, we were turning them over and scoring well.

“It was probably the best half we put in all year but we weren’t happy with that second half at all.”

Dowling was part of a four-man wall across the St Eunan’s midfield along with Sean McGettigan, James Kelly and Luke McGuinness and they dominated the first half.

However, in the second half, there was the rare sight of a host of Shaun Patton restarts being picked up by Dungloe players.

“They pressed us hard and they brought their ‘keeper (Damien McGowan) up behind us as well.

“Maybe some of the kicks weren’t going to where we wanted and we had too many bodies off to one side.”