Championship action heats up

Inishowen’s gaelic footballers experienced mixed fortunes in their Donegal Championship ties at the weekend, as the action in the competitions get into full swing. Buncrana’s footballers travel to Glenties this Sunday for the first leg of their senior championship quarter final against Naomh Conaill of Division One. Coach Stephen McFadden is under no illusions at the magnitude of the task facing his side. “They’re a top quality side who are riddled with talent from the Under 21 and senior county panels so we know we are going into the tie as massive underdogs.” He admitted. “We know we can cause them some problems though. Ryan Bradley will return and although he’s not up to speed yet that’s a big plus as he’s an important player for us. We have players with county experience like Odhran Doherty and Paul McGonigle so we’re confident of giving it a good go.” The most signifigant result of the weekend was recorded by reigning Junior Champions Carndonagh who overcame Naomh Brid in the Intermediate Championship to set up a first round tie with Bundoran this Saturday at O’Doherty Park (Throw in 7pm). Carn had been awarded the first leg of the tie after their Brid didn’t turn up for the tie but they recorded an impressive 0-10 to 0-6 victory in Ballintra with six points coming from corner forward Darren Burke. Carn coach Ciaran Canny is pleased that his side are back in action so soon after Sunday’s win. “We hadn’t played for three weeks because the home leg was cancelled so it was good to get a win and eliminate any ring rustiness. There was room for improvement in the performance but I was happy with the win.” He said. “We haven’t played Bundoran in the league this year yet so we won’t know that much about them but all the teams in our league are quite evenly matched so it should prove to be a good encounter and hopefully we’ll get a good crowd at the game. “I think its important that we win our home Championship games because very few teams overturn a first leg defeat away from home.” He concluded. Elsewhere at the weekend Urris went down to a narrow defeat to St Nauls in their Intermediate Championship Preliminary Round play off at Convoy on Sunday afternoon. A late scoring blitz from the Clonmany side which included goals from Alan Friel and Rocky Ivers wasn’t enough to narrow a gap of 11 points as the Mountcharles side ran out 3-13 to 3-8 winners. The immaculate pitch at Convoy experienced a flurry of Inish activity over the weekend. Urris’ game was preceeded by Malin Reserves play-off tie with Gweedore Reserves which ended in victory for the Gaeltacht side. On Saturday evening Naomh Colmcille suffered a one point defeat to Convoy in the preliminary of the Junior A Championship. The Newtown side will go into Sunday’s return leg at Parc Colmcille (Throw in 3pm) with considerable confidence after they more than matched their hosts over the 60 minutes.