KEVIN CASSIDY: Time for Donegal to do talking on the pitch

THE big weekends just keep on coming. This weekend we step in to the business end of the season and we have some absolute crackers to look forward to. First of all, let’s cast our minds back to last weekend and roughly trawl through the games.

Let’s start with Donegal who know in all honesty that they had a very comfortable day at the office. Louth stayed with Donegal in the first half, but you could tell that it was just a matter of time before Donegal’s dominance started to show and that’s exactly what happened in the second half.

Down and Galway played out a very exciting contest. Down can hold her head up high they turned in a fabulous display but Galway’s knowhow in tight games just saw them scrape through.

Kerry flexed their muscles with a comfortable win over a lacklustre Cavan side with David Clifford turning in a five-star performance that will surely send shockwaves through the rest of the country.

Dublin held their nerve to see off a gutsy Cork side and with King Con due to return they will be quietly confident heading into this weekend.

Before we get to the games, I suppose we have to touch on the controversy surrounding Donegal at the moment.

Firstly, let me say that the six-day turnaround is hard on our lads, I think everybody is an agreement with that but the issue here seems to be that we have been complaining for the last number of weeks and people are getting fed up with us.

I am not entirely sure what Jim McGuinness was getting at when he said that because it’s Donegal we get walked over. Perhaps there is something going on in the background that we are not privy to but listen that’s just how these things go from time to time. There will always be some team that is unhappy with a venue or a fixture but you just have to get on with it.

As a player you just want to play so I don’t think this whole ‘everyone is against us’ is needed.

I fully understand the psychology around creating a siege mentality but when the likes of Kieran McGeeney or Alex Ferguson leaned on this tactic to get more out of their players, they did it in-house and their players didn’t carry it out all over the media.

Donegal need to turn in a big performance this Saturday, that’s all that really matters here because when the game is over no-one will be interested in any off-field nonsense.

There are a couple of very exciting games this weekend.

Donegal and Monaghan should be a brilliant game. These teams have history and with a place in the semi-final at stake the gloves will be off. I still think that Donegal have a little too much for Monaghan and I expect them to win by a few points in the end.

The biggest game of the weekend is probably the clash of Armagh and Kerry. Armagh are building nicely but when Kerry hit Croke Park you just never know what to expect. We saw what kind of form David Clifford was in last weekend so when you put that man in the wide open spaces of Croker he will be next to impossible to stop.

For me a lot will depend on how Armagh can close Clifford down and if they are successful in doing so and they just may have enough to get over the line.

Elsewhere, Galway are building nicely and if Shane Walsh and Cillian McDaid are fully fit then I expect that they will have just a little too much fire-power for Meath, which should see them through to the semi-final stages.

The Dublin and Tyrone game is a little harder to call because both of these teams’ form has fluctuated over the last number of weeks so this could all come down to who just turns up better on the day. These two teams are so evenly matched it’s hard to call a winner.

I’m sure there will be a shock or two but I’ll go with Donegal. Armagh, Galway and Tyrone.