ULSTER SFC FIRST ROUND: THEY HAVEN’T won an Ulster football championship match in four years, and Donegal won’t need any reminding of that when facing Antrim in Sunday’s preliminary round at Ballybofey.

It was Antrim who inflicted perhaps the most galling defeat in the quarter-final two years ago, also in Ballybofey, while Derry took them out in 2008, before Down did likewise last year.

It means Donegal’s last victory in the Ulster championship was in 2007 when, as Division One league champions, they required a late, late goal to get past Armagh, by a single point – before losing out to Tyrone in the Ulster semi-final.

Times have been rough, in other words, although former manager Brian McEniff – who guided Donegal to their last Ulster title in 1992 and the All-Ireland that same year – reckons they’ve turned the corner, having spent a few years going round the bend.

When McEniff says the main reason for that is the appointment of Jim McGuinness as manager he knows what he’s talking about: it was McEniff who first brought McGuinness into the Donegal senior panel in 1992, and although he never suspected then that someday McGuinness would himself become senior manager, his career path ever since has effectively been building towards it.

“He was only 19 when I brought him in,” says McEniff, “and we called him ‘Cher’, because he had the long hair, and was just the baby of the team. At the time I wouldn’t have thought that someday he’d go on to be manager, no, but having watched his career since I can understand it now, especially after the way he channelled his studies.

“He’s someone who has done very well for himself. He went back and repeated his Leaving Cert a couple of years after winning the All-Ireland, in 1992. Then he went back to college in Tralee, and the University of Ulster, and won Sigerson titles in both colleges. So he’s very bright and academically very well qualified.

“And he’s very focused, and I think the experience with his club, winning with Glenties a couple of years back, has helped as well. He’s worked under a lot of different people now.”

The modern football manager needs to know a lot more than simply how to pass the ball, and McGuinness’ degrees in sport and exercise give him an added understanding of the physical demands of the game.

More importantly perhaps, McEniff believes he has the communication skills to get the best out of the players – not to mention having their respect and trust.

“One of the last things I did with the Donegal county executive, after 40-odd years, was to chair the selection committee for a new under-21 manager for 2010. The man we chose was Jim McGuinness. We were very impressed by him then. They were 10 questions to be answered, and he came out well on top.”

Taking the Donegal under-21s to the All-Ireland final in his first season proved this, and although they lost out to Dublin, McGuinness was the first and only choice to succeed senior manager John Joe Doherty after his fruitless two-year term ended last summer. McEniff has no doubt Donegal now have the right man in charge.

“There’s a good squad of players there now and Jim has a good handle on them. He’s also a good communicator, and that’s very, very important for a manager these days. I do think we’ll beat Antrim on Sunday, although it will not be easy. Ulster though is very hard to speculate about.

“But they’re in the mix with the top three, I’d say, and definitely have some chance of winning. But I think over the next couple of years though Donegal can get right back up there. We’ve a good minor side this year, won the All-Ireland vocational as well. We have players coming through, but it’s always hard to know what players you’ll get out of that.”

Not everyone in Donegal has been enamoured by the overly defensive style of football McGuinness has developed with the team, and indeed McEniff is one of those: “Yes, if I differ with Jim on one thing it’s his style of play. I’ve written about that here in the Donegal Democrat. I always maintain the best method of defence is attack. And I suppose that’s traditionally the way Donegal played.

“But it’s hard to argue with Jim right now, because he has had success, promotion from Division Two, as division champions.

“In this day and age that’s what it’s about. Success breeds success as well, and as they start to get some victories under their belt I think players will express themselves more. Because they do have the players to play a more flamboyant game.

“And if you go back and look at Armagh in 2002, and Tyrone in 2003, they were playing the same possession game, with a lot of men behind the ball, with the likes of Pat Spillane calling it “puke football”.

“But as the years went on they became more expressive. Kerry then adopted a not too dissimilar structure, so it’s a mixture of both I suppose. But it’s all about winning, starting on Sunday.

“We won’t think past that. There will always be a couple of upsets in the Ulster championship. Hopefully Sunday won’t be one of them.”