In the last round of the 2010 Allianz Football League, Donegal hosted Armagh in O’Donnell Park, Letterkenny. The prize at stake for both teams, locked on eight points each, was clear-cut – win and promotion to Division 1 was guaranteed.
ut it wasn’t even a contest. Armagh cruised to victory, 2-16 to 0-6 winners, a margin that was a foretaste for what was to come in the subsequent championship qualifier.
That game in Crossmaglen has since been given nadir status in Donegal GAA, the last before Jim McGuinness took over as manager and revitalised the county in the years that followed.
But the league loss in Letterkenny was probably worse, so heavy that it sucked the life out of them in subsequent games.
The venue wasn’t an issue then and shouldn’t be now. After all, why should a pitch that Donegal’s players are so familiar with, that they enjoy playing so much club football on, impact on their performance? It has a great playing surface, a decent-sized stand and is a credit to the club that owns and runs it – St Eunan’s.
But with Armagh back in town 12 years later for a final-round Division 1 game, the locals are feeling some extra trepidation with survival on the line.
There is no logic to it but Donegal’s league record in Letterkenny is appalling since it was reinstated as a county ground in 2007.
They won for a first time out there against Kerry en route to a league final success just over a month later against Mayo in 2007. But from 12 games played there since, they have only won once more, a 2-11 to 0-10 win over Monaghan in 2014 when they were operating in Division 2.
Since that 2014 game, they have lost all six games played there, hardly the right environment in which to be putting coveted top-flight status on the line now. Including two draws against Mayo in 2009 and Kildare (Division 2) in 2011, their ratio of success there is just over 23pc.
By comparison, the two other venues in the county that Donegal host home league games in – MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey, their primary ground, and Fr Tierney Park in Ballyshannon, have far superior records.
Ballyshannon has hosted 11 games from 2007 to the present day – the period of time covered since Letterkenny was restored to the rota – and Donegal have won nine there with one draw, an 86pc success rate. The only defeat there was to Dublin in 2009. Donegal didn’t play league games there in 2007 and 2008 or 2021 and 2022.
Ballybofey has been a league fortress over the same period of time. From 29 games they have lost just three with seven draws, a 77.5pc success rate. Most of the 19 wins came between the last two defeats there 12 years apart, from Down in 2010 to Monaghan last week.
Some of Donegal’s worst league defeats have been in Letterkenny, from Laois in 2012 (0-9 to 2-6) to Fermanagh (0-10 to 0-13) in 2019 when they were in Division 2. In 2016, Roscommon also went up there and won with a bit to spare, 1-19 to 0-17. Galway have twice travelled to the county’s biggest town and come away with the points.
In 2017, then manager Rory Gallagher intimated that Donegal would play all of their games in Ballybofey if he had a choice, given that it was their championship venue.
Gallagher, like everyone else, was at a loss to know why they performed so badly in Letterkenny, pointing out at a pre-league press briefing that they trained there as much as anywhere with the exception of Ballybofey and Convoy – the county’s centre of excellence.
In 2013, as All-Ireland champions, Donegal did play all three home games in Ballybofey to accommodate greater crowds, but Letterkenny and Ballyshannon were back on the rota for the next seven years.
Home success in the league will generally be between 50 and 60pc. Donegal have gone above that from 2007 to the present day with a 66pc return, inclusive of a ‘draw split.’ But Letterkenny, for some reason, has been the drag on that.
Donegal come into this game under a cloud since a poor performance against Monaghan 10 days ago, but there was improvement in last weekend’s Croke Park outing against Dublin.
Sunday’s game with Armagh is more than just a dress rehearsal for their Ulster quarter-final meeting in Ballybofey four weeks later.
Armagh have had a productive league to date and the temptation to throw everything into this will be strong, especially if Mayo are off against Kildare.
Donegal have survival on their mind, having slipped out of the top division twice already in the last decade. But that ongoing Letterkenny league malaise is something they’d surely like to put behind them at this stage too.
