Christy Toye set to return for Donegal

Christy Toye is expected to make his first competitive outing of 2016 tomorrow when Donegal welcome Mayo to Ballybofey.

Rory Gallagher’s team have started their Allianz Division 1 campaign in imperious fashion with a fine 2-14 to 1-7 victory over Cork following up on a 3-15 to 0-7 hammering of Down in Newry.

One of the facets of Donegal thus far has been their - as cliched as it sounds - willingness to mix young and experience, with Eoin McHugh and Ciaran Thompson in particular adding a new dimension to what was considered in many circles as an ageing panel.

Gallagher has used the early-season outings to give those youngsters a run and will gradually reintroduce some of his more established faces, with Toye next in line.

“Training has been excellent,” Toye said of his return to Donegal training. “There’s renewed freshness in the squad and there’s plenty of pace. From Rory Gallagher’s and the team’s point of view, it was important to start transitioning more players into the squad for this year and for next year.

“We’ve had 20 or 22 players playing for the last few years so something had to come to a head.”

Thirty-two-year-old Toye is Donegal’s longest serving player having debuted in 2001 against Louth in the League.

With 151 inter-county appearances to his name, last Saturday night the St Michael’s captain was at the club dinner dance in Dunfanaghy as the medals were handed out to the panel following last year’s success in the Donegal All-County Football League Division One. It was the club’s first senior trophy in their history. But the county still was calling.

“When you’re in your 30s you take stock of what your future holds at the end of every year,” Toye added.

“The hunger was still there for me. When the time comes when I have to go, I’ll go. But I feel I can contribute and more importantly the management feel I can contribute. I just enjoy playing football.”