ARMAGH were the reigning All-Ireland champions the last time they made the trip to Ballybofey and returned home to the Orchard County victorious, which will be a good omen for the faithful travelling support this weekend.
Steven McDonnell bagged a goal in that Division One league encounter back in 2003 and 22 years on, the Killeavy clubman hopes history can repeat itself and insists the current holders of the Sam Maguire Cup won’t fear Jim McGuinness’ Donegal.
The sides locked horns three times in 2024, drawing once in the league while Donegal triumphed in both the Division Two and the Ulster finals. While Armagh won’t fear their opponents, McDonnell feels it’s important they get one over the Tir Chonaill men.
“Home advantage will play into Donegal’s favour, but Armagh don’t fear Donegal,” said the 2002 All-Ireland winner.
“In saying that, while there’s never much between them, you can’t consistently go up against the same team and keep getting beat.
“I think Armagh will want to right a few wrongs this weekend. They had their chances in the Division Two final last year, they had their chances in the Ulster final as well and then you look at the All-Ireland campaign, they had the last laugh.
“The only thing is that Donegal have won two out of two, and if Donegal were to win again, that catapults them very much towards a league final spot and you want Armagh to go up and get the result to keep them in the mix for a league final.
“That’s where Armagh should be aiming for, even though the league is nowhere near as important as the championship, a league title for that group of players would be very important to continue the belief amongst the squad.”
McDonnell was extremely impressed by Armagh’s round two performance when they put old rivals Tyrone to the sword and believes that if they can replicate that display regularly, they could have another successful season.
But the 2003 Footballer of the Year does insist that Kieran McGeeney and his men will be under no illusions of the challenge they face this weekend and picks out one Donegal player in particular that Armagh should keep an eye on.
“There was teething problems in the first game (against Galway), but they turned things around in the space of seven days and their performance against Tyrone is exactly where you’d expect the performance levels of an All-Ireland winning team to be,” he added.
“The last couple of years, there hasn’t been much between Donegal and Armagh. Donegal seem to be on a high since the appointment of Jim McGuinness and they seem to be improving on last year’s performances.
“They’ve got good players and Oisin Gallen for me is one of the best inside forwards in the game. He can kick scores from distance and Donegal are putting up big scores at the minute and that’s difficult for any team travelling up to Ballybofey.
“The one thing that Armagh have across the team is a good spread of scorers as well. If they can get that going on a consistent basis, like they did last year, then they’re going to be in the mix in every game.”