'We'd love to get promoted but our main aim is the championship' - McLaughlin

Moville manager Paul McLaughlin believes that while his side’s defeat to Naomh Bríd on Sunday in their Division 3 clash was a setback, he says he can still take positives from it with his aim still very much set on the championship later this year. 

With three games to go in the league, Moville currently sits in fourth position with 10 points, while Naomh Bríd and Carndonagh sit joint in second with 16 points.  

That means if McLaughlin’s side have any hope of getting promoted out of Division 3 or at least making a play-off, they will need to win their last three games and hope Naomh Bríd and Carndonagh lose all of their final matches. 

It was a disappointing day for the Moville club on Sunday. Despite giving it their all with a very weakened team, the men from the Ballintra club just had that extra edge on them the entire time, as they fell to a 2-12 to 3-5 defeat.  

“Yeah I think we did well despite not getting the result, but it’s important to note that we’re missing a number of regulars due to work commitments and other things, but the young boys did well and despite struggling to get a team together, we managed it, and we gave our all today,” McLaughlin said. 

“I’m proud of the boys’ performance. We were unfortunate that every time we made a mistake, Naomh Bríd punished us, but even in saying that, up until the end, it was anybody’s game. We could’ve got a goal in the last few minutes and that would’ve brought us back level, but it wasn’t to be.” 

While McLaughlin knows the permutations in the league and admits it’ll be a mountain to climb, he still hits home regarding the main importance being the championship. 

“The defeat today was a setback, but our aim from the beginning of the season was to build a strong team for the championship, we spoke about that from day one and that’s still our aim,” he said. 

“We have a very young team in Moville and while we’ve been going well, we need to ask the question, are we ready for Division 2? It’s hard to know, but we’re still going to do our best and aim to win every game and have a solid championship run. 

“We still have a tough run of games regardless to get out of this division. We have three hard games to go, so, while today’s defeat is a setback, we knew these games were going to be tough and that’s just facts. We’d love to go up, but as I said, is the team ready? It’s hard to know.”