Three Donegal teams hoping to make the FAI Junior Cup quarter-finals this weekend

Three Donegal sides will line out this weekend for their last-16 ties of the FAI Junior Cup.

Buncrana Hearts and Letterkenny Rovers will make the journey down to Tipperary to take on Peake Villa and Clonmel Celtic respectively, while Cockhill Celtic will welcome Maree Oranmore of Galway.

For Buncrana Hearts, this weekend's match will be anything but easy for the Inishowen side, with Peake Villa overcoming 2015 and ‘16 back-to-back Intermediate Cup winners, Dublin’s Crumlin United 2-1 last weekend.

“We’re fully fit for this weekend’s game,” said Hearts star Eoin Murphy. “Luckily, we have a number of lads back from injury too, so I think we’re playing them at a good time from our own point of view because everyone is available, now it’s just about preparing as best we can.

“We played St Michael’s from Tipperary last year in the cup, and they won that league, so, if we’re playing anything like St Michael’s we know then we’ll be coming up against a very good side who won’t give us anything easy.”

One thing Murphy is looking to improve on is a fast start for this weekend’s cup tie, with his side forced to come strong with two goals in the final 10 minutes in their previous FAI Junior Cup match against Harding FC of Dublin, where they advanced with a late 3-2 win.

“Especially in the cup matches, we’ve been starting slow in each game. That’s something we’ve addressed and that will be our main aim from the start. We’ve always played really well in the second half, but in this cup run in particular, we’ve always been slow out of the blocks. Hopefully that changes.”

Elsewhere, another Inishowen powerhouse, Cockhill Celtic, are many people's favourites to win the biggest junior cup competition, but they know all too well not to take anything for granted in these games. 

They secured an easy 5-0 victory over Limerick-based Askeaton-Kilcornan two-weeks ago and, despite their heartbreak in the Intermediate Cup final where they lost out to Rockmount on penalties last April, the club displayed no signs of complacency as they moved forward to the last 16 of this year’s competition.

“We have our work done on the opposition as best we can. Our manager Gavin (Cullen) was watching them at the weekend, and he said they’re a very strong side, so we’re expected to be ready for them and like usual we’ll be taking nothing for granted,” said Cockhill stalwart Peter Doherty.

Doherty is one of the veterans at this stage on the Cockhill team having been a part of their 10 in-a-row title wins in the Ulster Senior League over the past decade, and despite their undefeated streak in the league so far this year, he claims that their side’s aim is to go all the way in this cup competition.

“You’re going into games where the opposition is completely unknown. That is a challenge in itself. The big thing about these cup ties is, if you get a home draw, you have to use it to your advantage, which is what we need to do this weekend,” said Doherty. 

With the Ulster Senior League folding last season, Cockhill was forced to experience life in the Inishowen Premier Division, and despite their obvious strength, Doherty believes the opportunity of playing scheduled football has been brilliant. 

Last year in the Ulster Senior League, the format was really unknown. I think last year we had about seven or eight weeks before Christmas where we had no games. This year it’s a lot more full on which is great, and those matches help you in the long run with the cup run.”

Meanwhile, Letterkenny Rovers’ last-16 tie will be a long trip to Clonmel after they overcame Mervue United at Fahy’s Field in their last-32 encounter. 

Stephen McConnell’s 10 men held on through eight minutes of injury time to defeat the former League of Ireland First Division outfit.

And despite the club’s focus on pushing for promotion to the Donegal Premier Division – they sit second behind Donegal Town – striker Lee McMonagle knows that a good cup run will lift the side’s spirit and hopefully ride a wave of momentum for the remainder of the season. 

“We’re very happy so far because we haven’t had any easy games, like obviously our last match against Mervue, but we had a tough fixture away to Wexford too,2 he said. “So, the fact we’re coming out the right side of these matches says a lot and it’ll help us in the long run in the league.

“Our main focus at the start of the year is for us to try and win all our games in both the league and the cup. The main focus is to get promoted but that doesn’t take anything away from this weekend. We’re looking to go to Clonmel and win.

“These cup competitions bring a great buzz to training and everyone is looking forward to the trip away to Tipperary.”