EVEN IF THERE were plenty of doubts in his own mind, Gary Wilson’s desire to succeed meant that he wouldn’t relent.
Last year, Wilson played with Sean MacCumhaills for the first time after making the move from Naomh Pádraig, Lifford.
He was going into Division 2 from Division 4 and into the Senior Championship having lined out for Lifford in the Junior Championship.
Picture caption: Gary Wilson in action for Sean MacCumhaills. Picture by Chris Doherty.
Wilson was a part of Jim McGuinness’s Donegal Under-21 panel of 2010 that won an Ulster title and reached the All-Ireland final, losing narrowly to Dublin.
[adrotate group=”52″]His ability was never in question but, still, the doubts began to grow in the early days of life at Sean MacCumhaills.
“Moving from Lifford to here was a big step,” he says.
“I had the wee bit of experience, but it was more just adjusting to the style of place. I always trusted my ability that I could play at this level. I just wanted to push on and make the best.
“I doubted myself at the start: Was I good enough to step up? It’s a big step. It was more moving the ball quicker. In Division 3 or 4 you have a second or two more. That adjustment was the biggest step.
“I just had to keep the head down. I always trusted my ability. I just doubted if things went wrong.”
Wilson is an architect, based in Newry, but missed just two training sessions in the whole of last year.
He only missed the final game of 2015 against Gaeil Fhánada as his employers dispatched him to China. Even then, Wilson attempted to reschedule the trip so he wouldn’t have to skip the game.
His is a rare breed these days, but it perhaps comes from those days in 2010 when he was training under McGuinness with the Donegal Under-21s.
Wilson says: “Jim has a wealth of knowledge. For me, playing at that time for Lifford, it was a great experience, learning off the likes of Michael Murphy and Dermot Molloy, top experienced footballers.”
On Saturday evening, Wilson arched over a wonderful long range score as MacCumhaills defeated Glenfin 3-16 to 1-10 in the Championship.
“It’s a big win for us,” Wilson says.
[adrotate group=”53″]“We were very disappointed in the Malin game, we felt we left that one behind us. The boys have everything in place for us and we get anything that we need.
“We didn’t give our full performance in Malin. There is a lot more there but we haven’t showed it, but we did press the right buttons against Glenfin.”
After an opening defeat in Malin, MacCumhaills are back in contention to reach the quarter-finals of the Championship, but first must defeat Naomh Muire this Sunday in their final group game.
[adrotate group=”46″]Wilson says: “We know that we have the talent here to go further.
“I think this club should be challenging at the top table. You want to be dining at the top table and there is enough in this team to go to Division 1. We are good enough. There is tonnes of talent here.”
Listen to the full interview below …
https://soundcloud.com/donegalsporthub-club-notes/gary-wilson-on-switch-to-sean-maccumhaills
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