All-Ireland Junior Football

Championship

Derry v Wicklow

Sunday, Mullahoran, 2pm

By Niall McCoy

DERRY manager Odhran McNeilly has said that they will not be expecting any favours from Wicklow in their crucial final Junior Championship group game on Sunday.

The Oak Leaf county head to Mullahoran knowing that it’s essentially win or bust when it comes to their ambitions of reaching the semi-finals.

Derry currently sit third in the table with Limerick and Carlow below them, but with those counties meeting and both enjoying a head-to-head advantage over Derry, the only other outcome that would see the Ulster side progress would be two draws.

The Garden county are already qualified as group winners, but McNeilly doesn’t expect them to rest players ahead of the semi-finals.

“They have won three games so they are guaranteed top spot and guaranteed playing fourth in the group,” he said.

“Will they rest players? Put myself in their shoes and I’d want a wee bit of momentum to bring into the semi-final the week after.

“Yeah there may be an element of looking after players but it’s hard to beat actually getting out and playing so I doubt they’ll hold too much back.

“We know we have to look after ourselves but it’s a big ask going to Mullahoran to play probably the best team in the Junior Championship, a side that retained their Division Three status this year and all the rest.

“It’s going to be a tough ask. It’s a victory or nothing.”

Derry are in a difficult place courtesy of two one-point losses to Limerick and Carlow, the latter of those arriving last week.

Rather than bemoan the small margins, McNeilly is taking a more nuanced look at the results.

“I suppose you’d take those narrow defeats if it meant we came out on the right side of a one-point win this weekend and the ball broke in our favour,” he said.

“From our point of view, those games were good for a group of players who are trying to learn. Hopefully that experience pays off for us somewhere along the way. Hopefully that’s this weekend.”

McNeilly also confirmed that Dania Donnelly should be fit to play despite coming off injured in last week’s loss to Carlow.

“She (Donnelly) should be okay and funny, Aine McAllister is a dual player but has no camogie game on the Saturday so we should have her fresh for the Wicklow game.”