'We will know exactly where we are after next week' - Ardara manager Damian Devaney

Ardara had a comfortable win over Aodh Ruadh in  the opening round and now make the short journey to Davy Brennan Memorial Park, Glenties on Sunday to take on Naomh Conaill.

There was a time when Ardara held the upper hand and were regarded as the noisy neighbours but the roles have been reversed in recent times as Ardara manager, Damian Devaney said after Sunday's win.

"Yeah, they've been very noisy for about 10 years," laughs Devaney. "Absolutely, they are a solid team and they have a lot of men to come back. There were a lot of funny results over the weekend when you see county men in and out. It's going to be a massive test but it will be a great test for these young boys because we have an awful lot of youth in the team.

"We have boys like Josh Malley coming in this year, straight out of minor; Darragh (Hennigan) is not long out of minor so it's just great from them boys to test themselves so early in their career against that.

"We will know exactly where we are after next week," says Devaney.

"We will be as confident as you can be heading to Glenties. But listen, that's the standard and boys want to test themselves. And when you have a full squad, you can't have any excuses. If you want to play senior championship football those are the places you have to go to.

"They'll be hurting from last night as well (defeated by Glenswilly) so it'll be an interesting game next week."

Ardara got their campaign off to a good start with a 3-12 to 1-15 win over Aodh Ruadh that was more comfortable than the scoreline suggests with the Ballyshannon side scoring 1-7 in the final 10 minutes.

Winning their first game at home was important for Devaney.

"It's massive. It's been a good few years since we had a home game in the first round so we put a big emphasis on that during the week and this morning. We started very strong and at the start of the second half we played as good as we did this year yet. And then we got a wee bit messy around the middle and started doing our own thing.

"We took a couple of pot shots and probably weren't on. And the goal then (for Aodh Ruadh) made it a bit tight at the end and it ended up being a bit frantic. We were just delighted to see the final whistle and get the result."

The manager was able to pick from an almost full deck, which was not the case for many years.

"Most years, in my time here, that hasn't been the case. This year we have a panel and it was hard picking a panel of 20 for today. We let Eoghan Ban (McNelis) play the reserve game and I think he kicked maybe 10 points so he is putting his hand up.

"KJ (Karl Joseph Molloy) is just back from injury and he was  on the bench and came on in the last few minutes; Joe Melly is back as well and came on and got a bit of game time; Charlie Bennett is back and he will not be far away the next day. It's a nice problem to have for a change."

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Ardara led 1-9 to 0-4 at the break and two goals early in the second half sealed the win.

"The first 15 minutes of both halves were good and Kyle McHugh was good coming in off the wing and got a couple of good scores. Disappointed that the three man up rule caught us twice, maybe three times today.

"It's a funny game now; whenever it's against you it is very hard to claw it back. Every team gets them five or 10 minutes. We started well then Ballyshannon had their five or ten minutes but we finished the half very strong.

"And that all came when Jack (Gallagher) had a very good free which hit the post which would have brought it back to one. Then we kicked on from that.

"The two goals gave us a good cushion" said Devaney, who said despite having a good lead, it was still uncomfortable near the end with the momentum with Aodh Ruadh."