ULSTER U-20 FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP PRELIMINARY ROUND

Donegal v Armagh

Friday, Healy Park, Ballybofey, 8pm

By Niall Gartland

DONEGAL usually do well in this competition, so they’ll be confident of taking the spoils in tomorrow’s Ulster Championship U-20 preliminary round contest against Armagh.

They appeared in six finals between 2010 and 2020, winning two, and perhaps of most relevant to this particular contest is that they reached last year’s decider, where on the day they fell short against Tyrone.

A number of players who started that day are still eligible for selection, including Richard O’Rourke and Padraig McGettigan, but they have a new manager, Gary Duffy, who takes over from Shaun Paul Barrett.

Duffy knows this particular crop of players well as he managed the minor team two years ago, and he has some big names in his backroom team, namely Eamon McGee and Leo McLoone.

Duffy has named Rory O’Donnell, who plays for Milford, as his captain, Jamie Grant is vice-captain, and one of the most promising young talents on the team is Shane O’Donnell, who is brother of Donegal senior intercounty player Niall.

Opponents Armagh haven’t really fared well at minor or U-20 level in recent times, but they’ve had some close shaves in semi-final contests and the like, so they seem to have the resources to do a bit better.

Unfortunately for Peter McDonnell, who returns as manager, a significant number of his players have soft-tissue injuries heading into this game, though he’s hopeful some of those players will recover in time for Friday evening.

They also have plenty of players returning from last year, including Shea McGill (who is second keeper on the senior team), Niall McCorry, Eoghan Woods, Lewis Hughes, Dara O’Callaghan, Joe Sheridan and Diarmuid Loney.