National Football League Division one

Meath v Donegal

Sunday, Pairc Tailteann, 2.30pm

Donegal boss Declan Bonner expects Meath to come at his team with pace this weekend.

Bonner was in Omagh last Sunday to watch the Royal county take on Tyrone.

“I thought Meath were good early on and they had about four goal chances in the first 18 minutes, and they took one of them.

“They have a lot of pace about them with the likes of (Bryan) McMahon and (Ben) Brennan and the Wallaces and (James) McEntee and Donal Keogan, and they are all fairly pacey, and Cian O’Sullivan.

“Navan is a difficult place at any time of the year and it is going to be difficult next Sunday. We have got to be ready and on the money.”

Bonner recalled how in the prevous year they needed a late goal from Caolan McGonagle to beat them in round two.

Both teams would go on to get promoted and met again in the Division two final. Donegal finished strongly to win that game.

Then they met again in the Super Eights.

“The Super 8s game was nip-and-tuck until the end. They are in Division 1 for a reason and they deserve to be there.

“It’s a big game for both teams and there are no easy points. You see the way the teams have been lining out.

“All the teams are going at it really hard. You see the squad of players that Dublin had out, and Kerry had out, and you saw what Monaghan put out. All those teams are going with full squads.”

In terms of the team that will take to the field on Sunday, Bonner should have a stronger hand barring a few injuries.

Caolan McGonagle is likely to be out, though that decision will be confirmed later in the week.

Bonner said: “Eoghan Ban (Gallagher) came through the game well. It was big and it is great to get him back on the pitch.

“He is in great shape and he has worked really hard.”

Patrick McBrearty could also return having been out of the country for the first round.

“I spoke to him yesterday and he is keen to get back into though he has been away for three months so it might just be asking a bit much too play him.”

Other players like Neil McGee and Michael Murphy also appear to be in good shape.

Bonner said: “With Neil last year, they went on an extended run with Gaoth Dobhair and that ruled Neil out of the early part of the league until near the end.

“In terms of Michael Murphy, he has come back in and trained very well. We weren’t going to use him in the McKenna Cup but we were always looking at him for that Mayo match.

“He has trained well and he is in good shape for this time of the year.”

The story from a Donegal perspective from last week was the manner of the draw against Mayo, shipping the late wonder goal from James Durcan ruined a perfect start.

“You can look at it whatever way you want it. But we didn’t get enough scores on the board in the first half. We had 24 opportunities which goes to show how we were in the ascendancy in the 38/39 minutes and only had nine scores on the board.

“We had eight wdes and six short and we need to tidy up on that side of things. But overall in terms of how we went about our business I would have to say I was very pleased.”

Though Bonner was hesistant about blaming the referee.

“It was disappointing and we have to be careful and I would like to say a lot more. Yeah we were disappointed there were a number of easy frees given against us that brought Mayo back into the game.”