WHEN DECLAN BONNER sat down the morning after the night before, he realised that his Donegal Under-21s hadn’t performed so badly against Derry in their Ulster quarter-final.
Two weeks on from the narrowest of wins, a 0-14 to 2-7 steal given to them by Stephen McBrearty’s free deep into added time, Bonner’s team goes in search of a place in the Ulster final.
Tyrone, the defending All-Ireland and Ulster U-21 champions, provide the opposition at Celtic Park this evening (8pm).
Against Derry, Donegal were looking home and hosed at 0-9 to 0-3 in front by half-time.
Niall Loughlin and Ruairi McElwee netted goals that gave the Donegal defence, and their manager, sleepless nights in their aftermath.
During seven heart-stopping minutes of added time, Stephen McBrearty saw a free cancelled out by Niall Toner before McBrearty’s power won a free that was pointed by the Kilcar man.
They survived. They got out of jail. But only by the skins of their teeth.
“We can always be critical and I’m always looking for improvement, but we actually played well for long periods against Derry,” says Bonner.
“We gave away two bad goals, though. The first one was horrible from a defensive point of view and from a team point of view.
“We pride ourselves in our defence and we always want to keep a clean sheet. The goals were terrible to give away.
“Whatever about the first, the second one was just a calamity.
“People were questioning some of the changes that we made early in the second half. The way we play, there is a couple of very demanding roles there and men just can’t go beyond 40-45 minutes.
“With the way the game was going, that was a bad time to be going into the game. It was difficult to get into it at that stage.
“We got better, bar that second goal, again, but we can’t go to sleep at all against Tyrone. We’ve worked hard since and I think we’ve corrected those mistakes.”
Bonner is likely to welcome his captain, Ciaran Thompson, back into the starting line-up this evening, the Naomh Conaill man having been restricted to a substitutes’ appearance against Derry owing to a knee injury.
While Bruce Waldron and Mark Coyle will be back in the match day squad, the game appears to have come too soon for Lorcan Connor, who played half-an-hour for his club, Downings, against Naomh Bríd on Monday.
Donegal don’t need any introduction to Tyrone and it is unlikely that pleasantries will be in bulk supply around the Lone Moore Road later.
A late Daniel McNulty free handed Tyrone a 1-11 to 0-13 win over Donegal in last year’s Ulster final. It was the third successive Under-21 final loss for Donegal and for Tyrone it was a win that ignited their flames to win the All-Ireland Under-21 title.
The likes of Frank Burns, Cathal McShane, Sean Fox, Lee Brennan and Mark Cavanagh return from Tyrone’s All-Ireland-winning squad.
Many of tonight’s participants also crossed swords in an infamous Ulster MFC game in Ballybofey last year.
The stakes tonight are high and Bonner, a winning addict, can’t wait for it.
“Donegal has to be in finals, not just contesting them but winning them,” he says.
“There’s no point us going to Derry, giving an Ulster semi a rattle and being happy with that.
“This group is hurt by defeats – the Under-21 final last year and the group I had at minor level is still hurting from losing the Ulster semi-final to Derry.
“You have to be ruthless enough as a group to bounce back from defeats like that. We want a performance against Tyrone that will get us over the line.
“We’re not heading to Derry to make a game of it and to leave happy enough losing by a point. The only think I’ll be happy with is a win.”
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