By Niall Gartland

DOWNINGS ladies footballer Michelle Wilkin has been there since day dot and she’s determined to grasp the nettle in this weekend’s Ulster Junior Championship final against Warrenpoint.

The Donegal club was revived in 2016 after a number of years in the wilderness due to small playing numbers, and they weren’t long in getting up to scratch, landing the All-Ireland Gaeltacht double on home soil in 2018.

In recent years, they’ve certainly been competitive but came out second best in Donegal Junior ‘A’ finals in 2022 and 2023 before getting it right
at the third time of asking with victory over Naomh Padraig Uisce Chaoin.

And the journey hasn’t stopped there as they’ve plotted a perilous path to the brink of provincial glory with hotly contested victories over Butlersbridge and Eoghan Rua, Donegal stalwart Shannon McGroddy landing a late winner on the latter occasion.

Reflecting on their hugely dramatic victory over Eoghan Rua, Michelle Wilkin made sure to single out the influence of their fanatic supporters.

“Eoghan Rua are such a brilliant side, I think they’re one of the best teams I’ve ever faced.

“I’m not sure how we managed to come through it, maybe we just had that bit more heart and determination to progress.

“We had home advantage as well but I have to say that the supporters who have followed us everywhere over the years have been brilliant and I think that’s been a big factor in getting us across the line.

“We want to win things for the team, but we also want to do it for the club and community. It was a long couple of minutes late on against Eoghan Rua when we were a point up, it was intense but it was brilliant to come through it.”

Last year Downings fell short on county final day against a formidable Dungloe side, but Michelle says they learnt from their previous near-misses and they’ve adopted the attitude that they will run through a break wall each and every day they go out to battle.

“Dungloe were brilliant and were the better team of the day but sometimes you need a loss here and there to learn how to improve, and I think that’s what we’ve done.

“I think we have more fire and intensity in us this year, it was our third Junior final in-a-row and there was no way we weren’t going to come back to Downings again without a cup. You have to pick yourself up and go again and that’s exactly what we did and it’s brilliant that we’ve kept on going.”

Managed by Barney Curran, Downings will of course do their homework on Warrenpoint, who stand in their way of the Ulster Championship title, but Michelle says it’s also important not to completely overthink matters.

“I hadn’t really heard much about Warrenpoint before and they’re obviously in the same boat as us.

“It’s good in a way to step into the unknown, the more you overthink things, the more chance there is of getting bogged down. Ulster is so competitive so we’re delighted to get to this point and there’s a great buzz around the local area.”