Potential player tug-of-war headache for Donegal U-20 boss Shaun Paul Barrett 

Shaun Paul Barrett admits there is a degree of uncertainty for Donegal in regards to their squad ahead of their Eirgread Ulster U-20 Championship opener away to Cavan. 

Barrett takes his young guns on the road to Kingspan Breffni Park on Saturday, March 9. However, the Milford man has a number of headaches to contend with right now. 

Abbey Vocational School are through to the All-Ireland B senior colleges decider where they’ll play Ashbourne Community School, Meath while on the same day Scoil Mhuire, Buncrana, will also contest the All-Ireland D final. 

The difficulty there is that both games have been scheduled for the same day Donegal U-20s make their championship bow. Seanan Carr, Callum McCrea and David Monaghan are all involved with Abbey while Sean McLaughlin is a vital cog for Scoil Mhuire. 

“There is a little bit of a clash there,” admitted Barrett. “Abbey won the McLarnon Cup and now they’re involved in the All-Ireland final on March 9. That’s the same day we’re scheduled to play Cavan. 

“It’s presented a little bit of difficulty so we don’t know what’s going to happen there. It’ll figure itself out”. 

Barrett will also hope to welcome senior squad members Oisin Caulfield, Carr and Luke McGlynn back into the reckoning at training, on a more frequent basis, in the lead-in to that clash.  

“They’re with the seniors. Sporadically, they’ve come back in a few times so we hope to get more access to them going forward as we advance in the competition. But as they are there or thereabouts in the senior squad, Jim will have first refusal. 

“I know the seniors have their own injury issues right now also so that will take precedence.

“It’s a very young squad. Most of them are still underage next year. But we’re looking forward to it - we’ve real belief in them. They've come into it with the right attitude and the want to work hard”. 

Donegal are in section B of the U-20 competition and as well as Cavan, are looking forward to clashes against Armagh and Fermanagh. 

The U-20 format has had something of a reshuffle and the manager says the extra game-time is a good thing for a squad of players that has put in a fine effort in recent months, on the training field, at the Donegal GAA Centre. 

“In previous years, you had the Leo Murphy Cup but really it’s all about championship. In a knockout format, you could do a lot of training over a period of months and one game and you were gone. 

“So at least we’ve three games to get ourselves together for and you hopefully you could move forward after that.   Anytime you play Cavan - a side hugely successful, particularly at U-21 prior to the competition moving to U-20 - you’re going to be in a game.

“We’re going up to Breffni Park, the Lion’s Den. But we’re looking forward to the challenge”.