A WIN OVER Clare earlier this month in Ballyshannon confirmed Donegal’s place in the semi-finals of the Lidl Ladies NFL League Division 2.
Michael Naughton’s team have won five from five this term and although he wasn’t at the helm last season, the Donegal manager will be understandable if some of his players are wary ahead of their trip to Kildare this Sunday.
Twelve months ago, with Davy McLaughlin in charge, Donegal won their first ever Ulster SFC title. And in spring they were blazing a trail through Division 2 only to lose to Armagh – a side they’d beaten 1-9 to 1-8 in the regular season in Castlefin – in the league 2 final.
Photo caption: Yvonne McMonagle in action against Armagh in last year’s Division 2 final at Parnell Park. Photo: SPORTSFILE
With only the winners getting promotion, Armagh skinned Donegal 4-18 to 4-6 at Parnell Park. So when the dust settled on 2015 and the cobwebs were blown off for 2016, there are three Ulster sides in Division 1 but the Ulster champions aren’t one of them.
“It’s very important for us to be playing Division 1 and you always want to be playing there against the top teams,” 2010 All-Star forward Yvonne McMonagle said. “Last year we might’ve been a bit complacent after a run of victories. This year we’re not going to be as naive.
“We want to build this year from the start and take every game from there. We just want to take every game. Winning is a good habit and it’s good to get. We’re just going to keep the the heads down and keep working.”
The 4-11 to 2-7 victory over Clare made it five on the hop for Donegal having overcome Westmeath, Sligo, Laois and Meath.
Niamh O’Dea opened the scoring that afternoon three weeks ago at Fr Tierney Park with a goal inside of 50 seconds for Clare. Donegal, inspired by a first-half McMonagle hat-trick on her way to 3-4 on the day in all, recovered well.
“We haven’t taken any teams for granted and we came out against Clare knowing that they had won all their games as well,” McMonagle added. “So it was a matter of staying focused and we were glad to get the 10-point win over them. We conceded a goal and a point but we got level and then ahead by working hard and picked it up there.”
| PLAYED | WON | LOST | DRAWN | POINTS FOR |
POINTS AGAINST |
POINTS DIFF |
POINTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Donegal | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 114 | 54 | 60 | 15 |
| Cavan | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 87 | 59 | 28 | 12 |
| Clare | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 90 | 61 | 29 | 12 |
| Westmeath | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 97 | 67 | 30 | 9 |
| Kildare | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 54 | 105 | -51 | 3 |
| Sligo | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 61 | 101 | -40 | 3 |
| Laois | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 55 | 84 | -29 | 3 |
| Meath | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 70 | 97 | -27 | 3 |
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