DONEGAL HEAD to Newry this evening looking to improve their away record in Division 1 of the Allianz League.
Donegal have won only two of their last 17 games in Division 1, stretching back to 2008.
Donegal won promotion back to Division 1 in 2006 and Brian McIver’s League-winning campaign of 2007 included away wins in Cork and Tyrone, as well as a madcap 4-6 to 2-12 draw in Limerick on April Fool’s Day.
Since then, there have been just two wins. There was Eamon McGee’s stunning last-gasp goal to sink Mayo in Castlebar in 2008, but the only other away success since was when John Joe Doherty’s Donegal defeated Westmeath in Mullingar in 2009.
The 0-15 to 1-7 win relegated Westmeath and it was a day when Christy Toye and Ryan Bradley hit three points each for a Donegal side that included Johnny Gallagher, Paddy McDaid, Charlie Byrne, Brendan Boyle and Michael Maguire.
A week later, and an away defeat to Derry, saw Donegal relegated themselves and success on the road has been hard to obtain – with a draw at Mayo last year their next best.
Granted, Donegal have spent three terms in Division 2 since, but their only defeat of the 2014 Division 2 campaign was at The Marshes, where Rory Gallagher’s team will hope to get their 2016 campaign off and running this evening.
“It would be nice to address that,” says full-back Neil McGee.
“More than anything we want to be competitive in these games. If we be competitive, we’ll not be far away. We were unlucky in a couple of the away games last year and we felt coming away from them that we could, and should, have taken something.”
The Gaoth Dobhair man, recently listed inside the top ten of the best 50 full-backs of the last 50 years by the Irish Independent, is back for another year.
McGee said: “The McKenna Cup was about dusting off the cobwebs and getting back up to speed. It was very positive because we got a lot of young lads blooded. If we can get them boys blended in with the rest of us, we could be onto a winner.
“If you get 30 boys competing in training it’d come easy in games. That’s what we need – competition within our own squad.”
Last year, Donegal’s summer was ticking along nicely until Monaghan derailed the train in the Ulster final. After ekeing over the line against Galway in a qualifier, Donegal bowed out of the race for Sam Maguire following a quarter-final loss to Mayo.
“We were moving along well, but we got injuries that affected us – Patrick McBrearty, for example, got injured against Derry in the Ulster semi-final and he was flying,” McGee added. “Then Michael Murphy got injured and it didn’t help.
“We were happy enough against Mayo until the goal went in by Aidan O’Shea just before half-time. We put out the message: ‘No goals’ just before that. It was a killer blow.”
DONEGAL ON THE ROAD IN DIVISION 1 SINCE 2007
2007
Cork 2-07 Donegal 1-12
Tyrone 1-8 Donegal 2-11
Limerick 2-12 Donegal 4-06
2008
Mayo 0-16 Donegal 2-11
Kildare 0-12 Donegal 0-11
Tyrone 0-11 Donegal 0-09
2009
Kerry 2-13 Donegal 0-11
Galway 1-16 Donegal 0-12
Westmeath 1-07 Donegal 0-15
Derry 0-14 Donegal 0-10
2010
Donegal played in Division 2
2011
Donegal played in Division 2
2012
Down 1-10 Donegal 1-09
Kerry 2-16 Donegal 1-08
Dublin 2-16 Donegal 0-13
2013
Kildare 2-14 Donegal 1-13
Tyrone 1-13 Donegal 0-12
Cork 0-12 Donegal 0-10
Mayo 1-10 Donegal 0-09
2014
Donegal played in Division 2
2015
Dublin 2-10 Donegal 0-11
Kerry 2-13 Donegal 2-11
Mayo 0-12 Donegal 1-09
