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Dennis Connerton expects 'difficult' Donegal clash

Longford manager Dennis Connerton.

Longford manager Dennis Connerton.

By William Dunne

Longford have won five out of their last seven Qualifier matches, but manager Dennis Connerton feels that their recent back door record won’t matter against Donegal on Saturday.

The midlanders' overpowered Louth a couple of weeks ago to progress to set-up a Round 2A Qualifier with Donegal in Ballybofey this Saturday evening, and Connerton admits a tough test awaits against Rory Gallagher’s outfit.

“We are playing a team that won an All-Ireland in 2012 and have been in the last six Ulster Finals,” Connerton told GAA.ie. “Our record doesn’t stand up to that. A few wins in the Qualifiers is where it has been at for us.

“We’ll really just be going to go out to try to perform to give the supporters, that follow us that far up to Donegal, something to smile at.

“Because we were very disappointing down in Portlaoise and we would like to put in a big performance this weekend.

“Everybody wants to perform and our players want to perform to the best of their ability. The pressure is on Donegal to go out to win. That is what is expected of them.

“They are at home and everything is stacked in their favour. For us, what we’ll be looking at is getting the best out of ourselves and performing to the best of our ability.”

Donegal, with their influx of young panel members, are said to be a team in transition, but had a solid campaign in Division One of the Allianz Football League this spring and followed that up with an impressive win over Antrim in the Ulster SFC.

However, Gallagher’s men were brought right back down to reality, following a crushing defeat to Tyrone in an Ulster Semi-Final two weeks ago.

Connerton states his main area of concern is the fashion in which they dismantled Antrim’s challenge. “All we are looking at really is the manner in which Donegal disposed of Antrim,” Connerton stated.

“They really brushed them aside, because we drew with Antrim in our very final league game to stay in Division Three.

“So, when you look at Donegal defeating Antrim by 3-19 to 1-9, we know that we have a mountain to climb and we know how difficult it’s going to be, playing against a top six team.

“There’s no point us looking at Donegal versus Tyrone, because they are two top six teams and we prefer to look at the manner in which disposed of Antrim and see where we can learn from that to see where we can go.”