Donegal to miss students

JIM McGUINNESS feels because colleges have priority over county players in the Dr McKenna Cup, Donegal will be at a disadvantage when the National Football League starts next month.

McGuinness was speaking in the wake of his side’s 0-11 to 0-9 defeat by UUJ in Letterkenny. Donegal, who take on Down in Newry on February 4 in their NFL Division 1 opener, faced two of their own panellists in the form of Leo McLoone and Eoin Waide, while the likes of skipper Michael Murphy will be lining out in Leinster’s O’Byrne Cup for DCU and Mark McHugh with Sligo IT in the FBD Connacht League.

“The difficulty for us is we have a lot of players at other colleges,” McGuinness said. “We’d prefer to have them with us in the lead in to the Down game. Heading to Newry for a first league game without them having played a competitive game for us is a difficult situation.”