Donegal don't have time to enjoy it

After a fairly relentless four-month schedule - climaxing with Sunday's first National League win - you'd imagine the Donegal footballers could chill for a while and enjoy their hard-earned success. No chance - not with Armagh waiting in the long grass for their championship date in five weeks' time.

There was the celebratory homecoming in Donegal town late on Sunday night and manager Brian McIvor has given the team the rest of the week off, although they resume duties this weekend with, believe it or not, a challenge game against Westmeath to mark the opening of a new pitch at Muff.

"We've been going five weekends on the trot now," says McIver, "and, in fact, more or less on the go since January 2nd. Between making the league final and also the McKenna Cup final and whatever else was going on we've only had two weekends off so far this year, so that's obviously been a hectic schedule.

"So it's only right to let the players unwind a little and enjoy the bit of a break now. But those two extra league games have been great for us, a real plus as far as I'm concerned and far better than anything you could do in training. And certainly better than going around trying to find a challenge or a friendly match at this time of the year."

It was strange how all the Donegal players repeatedly flagged the Armagh game on May 27th after Sunday's win over Mayo, as if their league success wouldn't count for a whole lot unless they went on and won there as well.

Last week that game was re-fixed for Ballybofey, and in ways that adds to the pressure - and McIver wasn't shying away from the talk of it being a hugely important game.

"It is more or less a question of keeping things going the way they are. A lot of the groundwork has been done at this stage, but there's still plenty of hard work to be done, no question about that.

"But I'm not looking on this league in anything other than a positive light. It's been a tough campaign, yes, but on top of it all it was very important for this team to win a national title, that these lads now know how to do it."

To win it in Croke Park can only stand to Donegal if they do manage to get back there at the end of the summer: "You only had to watch our younger players out there on Sunday to realise they were in no way daunted about playing in Croke Park and that's a great advantage."

Inevitably, the hype in Donegal will continue right through to the championship meeting with Armagh. McIver is at least well away from that as he lives between Ardboe and Ballinderry on the Tyrone-Derry border (he managed Ballinderry to All-Ireland club success in 2002), and his mind is already set on getting everyone refocused for May 27th.

"I'm very hopeful that everyone will be available to us as we push on towards the championship. Ciarán Bonner was mildly concussed on Sunday, but is not suffering from double-vision and should be fine. Neil Gallagher will also have a very sore eye for a few more days, but thankfully we've nothing long-term."

Mayo manager John O'Mahony has a few more concerns ahead of their championship date with Galway on May 20th: "Sunday's final probably came a week too soon for the likes of David Brady and Trevor Mortimer, who are both very close to coming back.

"Ronan McGarrity is still not involved (because of cancer treatment), and probably won't be involved until after the Galway game anyway. Ciarán McDonald has made a few attempts to get back, a few attempts at some light training, but is still getting treatment all the time on his back and we'll have to wait and see."

The GAA yesterday fixed Sunday's Division Two football league final between Roscommon and Meath for Breffni Park in Cavan (3.30pm) while the All-Ireland under-21 football final between Laois and Cork will be played in Thurles on Saturday week, May 5th.