Donegal will be 'different animal' claims Derry U20 manager McErlain after Fermanagh win
Derry U20 manager Damian McErlain is under no illusion about the challenge facing his team when Donegal arrive at Find Insurance Celtic Park for a Group A defining encounter on Wednesday (7.30pm).
McErlain's young Oak Leafers were superb in Saturday's victory over Fermanagh as goals from Conal Higgins (2), Luke Grant, Ger Dillon and Jude Bryson sealed an emphatic 5-20 to 0-03 victory that made it two wins from two Group A games.
That same Erne side had pushed Donegal into injury time before Gary Boyle's team finally edged home courtesy of Kalvin McLaughlin's 63rd minute winner, the Tir Chonaill men going on to subsequently impress in victories over Monaghan and Antrim.
It's a scenario that means Wednesday's winner will top the group and go directly into a home championship semi-final while the second and third placed teams face quarter-final play-offs. High sakes then, but the Derry boss stressed nothing will be definitive until the competition reaches its knock-out stages.
"Every game in this championship is different, teams improve from week to week in it," explained McErlain, "Donegal got their eyes opened in their first match, but they were impressive against Monaghan and Antrim, winning comfortably.
"We know what to expect on Wednesday. These two groups played at minor and the Donegal game was one of the toughest we had all year, a couple of times actually so it's going to be a totally different animal on Wednesday night.
"Today did not finish up like the realities of Championship football but Wednesday night, well we've only four days to get our heads around what it is going to be like."
McErlain was pleased with the control his team managed on Saturday against The Erne county, especially given the difficult conditions in Celtic Park.
"We're really pleased with the performance and that was the main thing," he added, "We had to focus on Fermanagh who'd been very good against Donegal and Antrim. They were really well organised in terms of that press, so the key thing for us was to make sure we didn't get caught in that, keep control of the ball and make sure we weren't holding on to the ball too long and letting them get at us.
"We did that well, we controlled the ball. They had the breeze in the first half, which was a serious breeze to be fair, and we gave away one two-pointer but once we got our hands on the ball again we started to tap over a few scores and kept control of the game right until half-time. "It was a good effort with some really good performances all over the pitch, and once we got a couple of goals, it killed the game."