Dubs head North again this Sunday

  • Mar 08,2012

Peter Clarke and his Dublin crew are on the road North again this Sunday for round five of the Bord Gáis Energy Ladies NFL, ahead of the Dubs is a 232km bus trip up to Convoy and an encounter with Michael Naughton' s young Donegal side.

 

Seven of the Donegal senior squad are County minors, Donegal's only win to date in the BGE Ladies NFL has been to Kildare, Naughton' s side accounted for the Lilywhites in round two by six points but have experienced defeats at the hands of Cork, Laois and Monaghan.

 

This is the first league encounter between Dublin and Donegal since 2003, Dublin on that occasion overcame the Donegal challenge on a score line of 4-10 to 0-07. Only two members of the current Dublin panel, Cliodhna O'Connor and Gemma Fay played in that match, both will be expected to line out against Donegal this coming Sunday.

 

Incidentally Dublin's top scorer on that day was Karen Hopkins of Ballyboden St Endas who bagged herself, 2g-2pts while Na Fianna's, Mary Nevin notched up a tally of 1g-4pts.

 

Donegal will miss the services of top their forward Geraldine McLoughlin, who suffered a pelvic injury in round three against Laois, McLoughlin is expected to be missing from the Donegal line out for up to six weeks.  The manner in which McLoughlin picked up the injury lead to a verbal outburst from the Donegal boss with Naughton calling for better protection of his young players by officials.

 

Back to this weekend's action, the league table makes for some interesting reading. Dublin, Monaghan and Laois are all on nine points while reigning champs Cork are sitting comfortably on top of the table with four wins out of four having amassed a full twelve points.  Donegal along with Tyrone and Meath are on three points, Donegal are positioned second last owing to an inferior score difference while lowly Kildare are firmly lodged at the bottom of the table pointless having suffered four losses in a row.

 

Other fixtures this weekend sees the clash of the big two with Laois travelling to Fermoy to take on Cork, Tyrone welcome Monaghan to the Red Hand County while Meath can look forward to a visit from Leinster neighbours, Kildare.

 

Dubs boss Peter Clarke will name his team to face Donegal tomorrow evening, the blues line out will be revealed on the Official Dublin Ladies website www.dublinladiesgaelic.ie after 9.30pm