As for Sunday’s game, it’s hard to see Down stopping this Donegal machine.
Beating Fermanagh would have taken a lot out of Down, both emotionally and physically, because they looked in serious trouble with 10 minutes to go.
Down did well to pull it out of the fire but Fermanagh forced them to dig deep. Those types of games can be difficult to recover from and the fact that Donegal are moving so well only makes the task even more difficult for Conor Laverty’s side.
For Donegal, it looks like everything’s going to plan so far. They beat Derry comfortably and did a lot of things well against Monaghan. In the second half, Monaghan exposed a few gaps in their armoury but Donegal were still the better team.
One of the impressive things about Donegal is they don’t force things. Their scores are well-worked and well-taken.
With the introduction of the two-pointer, we have seen a lot of teams trying to force the issue, but Donegal always seem to know when to attempt the two-pointer and when to string a few more passes together and take the single score.
So many of their players are in-form, too. Shaun Patton is having a great year and is arguably the form keeper in the country, Peadar Mogan was impressive against Monaghan and Daire O Baoill seems to play well every week now.
Add in the scoring power and experience of Michael Murphy, Patrick McBrearty and Ciaran Thompson and it looks like Donegal are trending in the right direction as they build up for a serious tilt at the All-Ireland.
This Ulster series has featured a lot of courageous performances from underdogs: Antrim, Fermanagh, Monaghan.
As a neutral, you’re hoping Down can do the same against Donegal, but Jim McGuinness has only lost one Ulster Championship game over his two Donegal stints and it’s hard to see that record changing on Sunday.
