Inishowen League manager Diarmaid O’Brien insists his side are facing a ‘must win’ game tomorrow at Maginn Park in the Oscar Traynor Trophy against Sligo-Leitrim League.
Following their defeat to the Donegal League in the competition, O’Brien’s outfit now must see off the visitors to ensure their progression.
Looking ahead to the game, O’Brien insisted it will take a huge display from Inishowen against a tricky Sligo-Leitrim side.
“I’m hoping that we can get into our stride early and produce a big performance and get the three points. Sligo are never easy to come up against, they are always difficult opponents, and in the past, we have probably struggled with them.”
The Inishowen side have done extremely well in the competition over the past several campaigns, reaching three finals in the last five years, but O’Brien insisted they were not taking Sligo-Leitrim lightly.
“At this stage in the competition, you can’t be taking anybody lightly,” he added. “We didn’t take Donegal lightly the last time, we just didn’t play well and they deserved their victory, but the boys know now that they are at their last chance saloon, and if we don’t win tomorrow then that’s it for us.”
Inishowen will look to use the home advantage to as an edge against their opponents and O’Brien urged his players to seize the opportunity.
“It is always an advantage playing at home, you are used to the surroundings and the boys need to take any advantage they can get.
“I always find if you can start these games well then you can build momentum as you go into the game, but that goes back to the Donegal game where we didn’t start well.
“We were poor in the first half, even though we went one nil up, so it is important that the boys start the game well tomorrow.
“It is a new competition and we need to prove ourselves all over again and we didn’t do that against Donegal.”
Inishowen will welcome back Terence Doherty and Kieran McDaid to the fold on Sunday – a huge boost for O’Brien’s plans.
“It’s good to get them back into the squad, but it isn’t about one or two individuals,” O’Brien said. “It is about the team coming together and putting on a big performance.”