GAELIC FOOTBALL:IT SEEMS everything is coming together for Jim McGuinness with an uncanny sense of timing.

In his first season as Donegal manager, he’s already secured promotion to Division One, and now after beating defending Ulster champions Tyrone on Sunday, brought the county within reach of a first provincial title since 1992.

That was the same year McGuinness first broke onto the county scene as a 19-year-old – nicknamed “Cher” because of his long, black curly hair – and indeed the same year Donegal went on to win their first and only All-Ireland.

So whatever the outcome of the Ulster final showdown against Derry on July 17th he has reason to be happy with the progress – although he’s clearly not finished yet.

“It’s great to be looking forward to an Ulster final,” he says. “We’ll be back training this week with a great buzz in the camp, and some excitement. I think we got so much out of Sunday’s game. Beating Tyrone and getting through, first of all, but getting the lessons of it as well. It’s fantastic.”

Sunday’s victory had some wider implications in that it sets up a first Ulster final in 13 years without either Tyrone or Armagh defending their title – as they’d won the last 12 titles between them, going back to 1999. It was Derry who last won the title before that, in 1998, and based on their impressive win over Armagh last Sunday week will start as favourites to win it outright.

“Sure it’s a great opportunity for both counties,” says McGuinness. “John Brennan (the Derry manager) will see this as a great chance to win an Ulster title, and we see it as a great chance too. I was in Clones the last day watching Derry, and out of the two semi-finals, you’d have to say Derry were the most impressive.

“But at the same time we came through a big test against Tyrone, because we were pressed to the pin of our collar in the first half. Had Tyrone’s goal chances gone in, we could have been 10 points down.

“And I wouldn’t even like to contemplate the hill we’d have to have climbed then. But at the same time they kept chipping away, kept believing. So we’ll have to re-evaluate a little bit, look towards that game in a positive mindset, that we can go out and win the match.”

Donegal’s last Ulster final appearance was in 2006, although they started this campaign without having won an Ulster football championship match in four years. It was Antrim who inflicted perhaps the most galling defeat in the quarter-final two years ago, so taking out Antrim in the first round this year was always going to be the first priority.

Although it wasn’t pretty, Donegal raised their game again against Cavan in the quarter-final, before demonstrating considerable composure in the way they rode out Tyrone’s first-half onslaught in Clones on Sunday.

“Well I think we were good at keeping our composure throughout the league,” says McGuinness. “It was about getting back to that, relaxing a little more, and getting back to the way we were playing.

“Because we spend a lot of time at training trying to develop these things, they toughen our back, and all that. Hopefully now we can kick on again. It’s a game to look forward to. Everybody will be happy at training, a first Ulster final in a few years.”

While Tyrone were praised, even by McGuinness, for the pace and ferocity of their first 30 minutes, there was no question that Donegal finished the stronger. At 28, defender Kevin Cassidy is one of the veterans of a Donegal team where the average age is just 24, and he credits McGuinness for instilling the new-found belief and endurance.

“Well we’ve a lot of hard work done this year, a lot of work in the legs. We wanted to be there the last quarter of the game. We know if we’re still in the last quarter of the game, and get our system into the play, our boys on the ball, then we can give any team a game. We didn’t panic.

“An Ulster medal would mean a lot to this team. We’ve put in a lot of hard work over the last 10 years, but it’s our own fault that we didn’t pick up some silverware. But we’re in the right place now.

“Looking at Derry’s performance against Armagh we’ll get nothing easy in the Ulster final. But we’ll knuckle down for the next three weeks and give it our best.”