By Michael McMullan

THE mood is upbeat in the St Eunan’s camp after their win over champions Naomh Conaill but skipper Kieran Tobin knows full well his side have more work to do.

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s semi-final showdown with last year’s beaten finalists Gaoth Dobhair, Tobin hopes it will be third time lucky. Twice Gaoth Dobhair came to St Eunan’s home patch and twice went home victorious. The first came at the end of May in the league. The second was in the championship after the Letterkenny side had beaten Kilcar and Naomh Conaill.

For both teams, it’s a fourth game in as many weeks. Much of the early conditioning needs done during the league. Tobin speaks of the six-week block after the league where the engine got another tuning.

Another ingredient was resilience and composure. After leading 0-7 to 0-3, St Eunan’s were reeled in by Naomh Conaill last weekend until an equaliser from Ciarán Moore before Eoin McGeehin’s winner.

“The second half performance was well under par, but whenever we needed to step up and show a bit of bottle, we managed to find a bit of composure again,” he said of their finale.

“We ended up putting one over the bar with Eoin McGeehin, but that was definitely the most pleasing aspect of the whole lot, was even when your backs were against the wall, you still managed to find a way out of it.”

Tobin also references the weekend off after losing to Gaoth Dobhair in the group stages. There was thought and a scratching of heads. The performance wasn’t good enough and they needed to know why. It was a bump in the road that didn’t do them any harm in the long run.

“They (Gaoth Dobhair) gave us a bit of a tanking in the league in O’Donnell Park,” Tobin recalls.

“This will be the third time this year we’re playing them so we’ll have to get ourselves sorted and get back at it.

“This is a massive game and a huge opportunity to get to the county final and that’s what it’s all about.

“The turnaround (after beating Naomh Conaill) is short, it’s sharp but the big games… that’s what people are looking for and that’s what you want to be a part of. We just have to get ourselves sorted now in this short span of time and really go at it this weekend.”