McColgan an early absentee for Naomh Padraig, who retain a sense of confidence

Naomh Padraig Uisce Chaoin manager Daniel McCauley is upbeat about the club's prospects in this year’s Donegal Junior A Championship, despite missing county player Caolan McColgan to begin with.

McColgan was part of the Donegal panel that reached the All-Ireland semi-final after a troublesome couple of years on the injury front but is going to miss the first two games of the championship because he is in America on holidays.

After a good run in Division Two of the All-County Football Leage and a mid-table finish at the end of the club’s first time to play in the second tier, hopes are high for the championship.

“We really enjoyed playing in Division Two. It was a big step up in intensity levels from the third division,” said the Naomh Padraig boss.
“We won four games and drew three and two of the draws were against the two teams that were promoted to Division One - Four Masters and Buncrana.

“We would have given our right arm for where we finished in the league at the start of the year. We were very happy with the league and how it went for us.”

And when you factor in, Naomh Padraig were without their star man McColgan,who is a member of Jim McGuinness, Donegal senior squad.

“We didn’t have Caolan McColgan and only had Drew McKinney, due to injury, for four of the games,” McCauley added. “Caolan is in the States and will be back the night before our second game but is only back the night before so it would not be right to play him.

Naomh Padraig’s two opening games in the championship are home to Urris and away to Naomh Ultan.

“We hope the experience of playing at the higher level will stand to us in the championship,” McCauley added.

Naomh Padraig have added the much travelled Dougie Corbett to the backroom team this season.
“It is Dougie’s first year with us and he has added that bit of experience and his knowledge of Donegal football that we were probably lacking,” McCauley added. “He has unbelievable in Donegal football and his knowledge of players around the county is a massive help.”

Fearghal O’ Boyle, Martin Mooney, Brendan McKinny and Gerard Harkin are the other members of the management team.