Donegal will travel with fuel in the tank and hope in their hearts

THE anger over choice of venue has dissipated, a little, in Donegal. Most minds are just now focusing on the task in hand. And those supporters who will join the slow motorcade through all the bottle-necks between the county and Castlebar will travel with a fair dollop of hope in their hearts.

While most of the country think they have missed their chance, Donegal footballers haven't even entertained the thought. All but one player, who remained in Dublin for work, were on the bus home on Monday night. By Tuesday afternoon, the squad were seen splashing around in Fintra Strand enjoying the heat of early August in a light-hearted training session. There were no glum expressions to be seen. It wasn't the behaviour of a team who let their chance slip.

"The buzz is good," says returning defender Damien Diver. "Everyone is quite relaxed going into this game, everyone is in good form. I know there are people who think we missed our chance last week, and to be honest, we would expect Galway to be a lot stronger this week. But there are areas where we have to improve too."

Diver's return will bolster the hope in all those Donegal hearts. The 28-year-old rarely plays a poor game for his county and for most of the year has been their most solid defender. When their defence creaks, as it can in patches, Diver can exude confidence with the ball in his hands. Of course, it was his right hand, and a bone within it specifically, that caused his absence last Monday.

Diver's appearance in the second half steadied the defensive ship, although the Ardara man feels the full-back line did an excellent job without him. "Well, the full-back line came in for a lot of flack after Down, but I think questions were answered last week. McCready and Raymond Sweeney both did excellent jobs on their men and Mark Crossan played well too. Playing in a full-back line, there are always going to be questions asked, the same thing has happened Kerry after the Roscommon game.

"All we can do is try to get out in front of our men. But we are only as good as the players out the field, as the half-back line. It depends on other people working hard as well." Donegal's work ethic last Monday was one of the more pleasing aspects of their game. They harried and hunted in a way more associated with Galway, and often had 12 players behind the ball when the Tribesmen were building attacks.

The corner-back believes this attitude of working for everything comes from Donegal's northern cousins, the newly-installed favourites to reach the final. "You won't be in this stage of the championship without good work-rate. Look at how hard Tyrone and Armagh work for each other, look how hard they work without the ball. That is the standard everyone should be aiming for."

However, Diver's display when he came on did enough to convince Brian McEniff that he should replace Crossan. And he did it with his broken bone yet to heal. Diver's consistency has been one of the themes of Donegal's summer of steady improvement. The graph has risen slowly, but surely, upward since that dark day in Enniskillen, has risen so far that Donegal can reasonably consider themselves to be one of the top eight teams in the country.

"Well, I don't know," Diver feels. "Maybe, when we sit down and think about it we would consider ourselves to be in the top eight teams in the country, but we are still a long way from being one of the top teams in the country. We are just happy to be where we are, there are still a lot of areas the team can and has to improve on."

One area where Donegal have caught the eye has been superior fitness. They have finished stronger than their opposition in all their games since the Fermanagh debacle, and in the final 10 minutes last week, as Galway visibly tired, Donegal looked to be moving into another gear. It has been a consequence of starting training later in the year than anyone else, but that also had its downside. "Maybe, we showed that we are that wee bit fitter in the final 10 minutes last week, but we also got relegated from Division 1. So, it is hard to know whether to train late and concentrate on the championship or train earlier for the league."

They are still not happy about the venue in Donegal but it won't matter if the under-dogs emerge and, despite their impressive performance in the drawn encounter, that is what Donegal remain under-dogs but the players aren't complaining.

"I don't think it is any secret that we prefer playing in Croke Park, the wider spaces suit us more. And we don't know much about Castlebar, Galway have been playing there for years. The pitch gives Galway a bit of an upper hand, but it's just another field, something else to contend with. We will go down and give it a lash. Things are stacked against us but that's the way we like it in Donegal."