Rescue missions launched on north-west frontier

THE north-west will stir onto our screens tomorrow afternoon as Donegal and Sligo, near neighbours and rivals, will meet for the first time in a championship game.

The bang should reverberate across the country. After all, this was the All-Ireland semi-final that never was last summer.

Both teams came as close as they could to beating more vaunted opponents in the championship quarter-finals, the stylish football of both teams injecting the campaign with some vibrancy.

That is what makes the perceived decline of both teams this season all the more arresting.

The drop in Donegal’s fortunes is the more shocking. While Sligo were confidently expected to beat Mayo, there was a certain air of inevitability about the defeat.

Donegal’s display against Fermanagh, though, ranks among the very worst seen by young and old in the county.

It drove the Follower, the Donegal Democrat’s iconic football columnist, to pen a beautifully-worded but heart-wrenching: ‘Where to now for Donegal football’ piece.

It had the entire county in the doldrums. In nine short months they had slipped from the verge of a possible All-Ireland semi-final and beyond to a heartless, spirit-less display in Enniskillen.

Niall McCready, Donegal’s energetic corner-back, was the only man to leave Brewster Park with reputation bolstered.

McCready concedes the football is going well right now but, as only one defender, it hardly makes much difference if all around you aren’t playing to their high standards.

“You look back at the Fermanagh game and there is really no reason for the way we performed, it was terrible, simply terrible,” McCready said.

“The worst part was in the second half, the team just didn’t show any heart or resistance at all. If you look at the stats of the game, in the first half, we had five shots at goal and scored four points. In the second half, we scored two, and those came near the end.”

You can almost sense McCready’s shudder down the phone line. Having missed out on the mardi gras stuff last year as he was living in the States, the defender thought he was returning to a Donegal team going places.

Instead, turmoil has pockmarked the start of Brian McEniff’s sixth managerial reign. In the county, there is a perception things haven’t been right since the replay against Dublin last year.

However, there were some positive signals emitted from Ballybofey last time out. “After the Fermanagh game, we had some team meetings and we just sat down and took a long hard look at ourselves, we had to,” McCready recalled.

“Because if we went out and played the same way against Longford, we would be out of the championship.

“Longford are a tidy team but I think there was a big improvement from all the players, it is reflected in the fact we scored 1-17.

"Sunday is going to be a big test for us, though. If we win, there might be a bit of momentum built up behind the team again, especially because it is a derby.”

The county and provincial boundaries that have kept the heart of the GAA beating have kept Donegal and Sligo apart in the senior championship.

Not that the players will be unfamiliar to one another. Like McCready, many have been through plenty of under-age battles with many of the Sligo players and the counties are constant opponents in combative challenge games. You can expect niggle tomorrow, especially with the future of both sides at stake.

“Sligo seem to thrive in the back-door system and that is something we are well aware of. The last couple of years, they have really enjoyed playing outside of Connacht, so it won’t be easy. If we get through this, we will have deserved it.”

Whatever happens, it promises to be an interesting tussle, and with a lot more than local pride at stake. These two teams are about to discover whether they are moving upwards or have started the downward slide.