Donegal v Tyrone

Saturday, Letterkenny, 1.30pm

THE two north west rivals do battle once again, and it is Donegal who should feel that they have the upperhand so far.

Donegal’s 3-13 to 1-9 win over Armagh will have provided Michael McCann’s team with a great confidence booster going into this clash with Tyrone.

The Red Hands in contrast, suffered defeat  to Mayo before beating Monaghan last weekend. Tyrone perhaps have struggled with their scoring in the latter part of this season. Against Mayo they were not firing, but they turned things around against Monaghan and put up a tidy 2-19.

The fixture that hangs over this game is Donegal’s defeat of Tyrone in the National League earlier this year. Back in February, Donegal beat Tyrone by 2-23 to 1-15. Tir Chonaill’s goals came from PJ McCarron and Dylan Duffy. Donegal had led by 1-12 to 1-5 at half time. Tyrone did rally in the second half, but Donegal held firm. That McCann’s team would go on to win Division 3A to earn promotion up to Division 2B is further proof that this Donegal team is a force to be reckoned with, and adding a Nicky Rackard title to their haul this year is not beyond them by any means.

The team news coming out of Donegal is not good however. McCann said they are struggling with a number of injuries. Davin Flynn is certain to miss the game. He has hurt his hamstring. Declan Coulter is also struggling, and while he has a chance of playing, it is unlikely.

McCann said: “They are two big players to lose, two of our key forwards. They are likely to miss this weekend. Davin had just come back this year. He had scored five against Armagh and was looking very sharp.”

Yet it is not all doom and gloom. Kevin Kealy and Conor O’Grady have  been playing very well. Kealy scored a goal against Armagh and O’Grady came off the bench to score 1-2. They will provide support for already star players like Danny Cullen and Ronan McDermott.

“We have the strength and depth on the team that perhaps Donegal have not had in the past,” McCann said.

But he added that strength and depth won’t win this game.

“Against Longford (in the first round) we were not good enough. It was a poor performance. We were not clinical enough. But that game was the kick that we needed and we had a better day against Armagh.”

Now they turn their attention to Tyrone and McCann said that they have a difficult challenge.

“Damian Casey is one of the top forwards in Ulster. He is a handful. They have a lot of good forwards but Casey is the main threat. He scores 1-10 regularly. We have to be very patient in the tackle.”

But they’ve done  it before. They held Casey to a handful of scores earlier this year. The feeling is that they can do so again this weekend.