Donegal’s promotion bid heats up

By Michael McMullan

DONEGAL manager Mickey McCann insists Sunday’s visit of Wicklow is where his side’s Division Three promotion gets serious.

Now in his ninth season in charge, McCann has bucketloads of experience and knows victory on Sunday in O’Donnell Park could clinch promotion.

Donegal and Tyrone were relegated last season. Since McCann’s side overcame the Red Hands, s in the opening game, they have eased to three victories that place them at top of the pile.

It’s a promising position but he has been round enough corners to be fully aware of what Sunday is all about.

“It’s exactly where we wanted to be when we looked at the season,” he said. “We are going into Wicklow and Roscommon (their last two games) unbeaten.

“Getting over that first match at Tyrone was important. It was a game that was leve; after 55 minutes and though we pulled away and won comfortably in the end, it was a eal tough game.”

Donegal have since beaten Armagh, Fermanagh and Louth by a combined margin of 58 ponits. McCann looks to an indifferent performance against the Orchard County without looking like losing. They were comfortable last weekend against Louth but now all that has gone before is on the line.

“I think the real test is coming,” McCann feels. “There are three Christy Ring Cup teams (including themselves) in this division and we still have to play both of them.

“Tyrone definitely was a tough test for us but the last three games we’ve been very comfortable. There will be very little in our game against Wicklown. We’ll know exactly where we’re at come Sunday evening.”

With Wicklow having lost to Roscommon, a second defeat would leave them out of contention for promotion.

McCann feels Wicklow are a better side but were pipped by the Rossies. Now, it’s win or bust and they’ll have to leave everything out on the pitch on Sunday.

“We need one more victory in the last two games, so, we’re in a good place but we’ve still two of the top teams to play now,” McCann added.

“It’s basically a semi-final for Wicklow. We’ll have another shot at it but we’ll be treating this one like this is the one we’ll want to win,” he said of their final home game.

“We want to try and get the job done. You’d be going to the last league game which is a dead rubber. It would be a great chance to get the panel game-time and get (some of the players) a rest towards the league final. If we happen to lose on Sunday, our match against Roscommon is basically just a semi-final but we’ll try and get the job done this week if possible.”