By Chris McNulty

KEVIN Cassidy is sick of Donegal being the nearly men in the Ulster Championship and the captain is aiming to spur his side to a victory over Derry on Sunday to kick-start an assault on the elusive Anglo Celt.

It is sixteen years since the provincial championship rested in the Hills and having suffered three final defeats in the last six summers, it has been a case of so near yet so far for Cassidy and company.

Cassidy is very much a personification of his native Gaoth Dobhair. Rugged yet spectacular when in full-flight terrorising the opposition the former All Star winner brings to the table a frightening array of skill.

When Cassidy speaks, you tend to take note. On Tuesday afternoon, he strolled into Sean MacCumhaill Park as cool as could be and in that charismatic Gaoth Dobhair manner made his way around reporters, delivering his own frank assessment of Donegal's history in Ulster during his six years on the scene.

"We haven't had much success," he began. "There's been a couple of big wins and a couple of big games.

"It's time for this team to put three or four massive Championship wins behind them. One win a summer is no good any more. I think we have to have a good run in Ulster this year, but sure look at who we've got in the first round."

Asked of Donegal's chances on Sunday, 'Cass' laughs. "You know the craic," he comments, "it's going to be tough."

In his first term as captain, Cassidy is determined to lead Donegal to success, yet he knows all too well that the competitive nature of the Ulster scene will make it another tough slog - playing to the potential, he feels, is of paramount importance, however.

"I think there has to be a good Ulster campaign," he said.

"In saying that we've been beaten in three Ulster finals over the last six years or so. It's just making that final breakthrough. But we're a long way away from Ulster finals or even Ulster semi finals at the minute - it's just Derry that we're concentrating on.

"They're the National League Champions, but we know that if we play to our potential on Sunday we'll put it up to them. Hopefully if all the boys are ready to go we can match them all over the field.

"After last year we sat down and planned to approach this one a wee bit differently. It's easy to stand here and say that everything is going well - we won't know if that's the case until Sunday."

Last year's campaign is a much-maligned one in the Land of O'Donnell, yet Cassidy reckons it is best confined to the history books. "We were contenders for the All Ireland at one stage last year which was silly - the big teams don't come out and play really until the quarter final stage," he commented.

"Last year is last year, there's new boys on the panel and there's a fresh approach. It's going to be a massive step. If we're good enough to win it it will be a massive step.

"We definitely have the ability, it's just getting it out of us. Brian is working hard this year. Our players had the ability, but maybe they were a wee bit quiet and a wee bit shy. Hopefully on Sunday we'll see every man expressing himself".

Having had more time to prepare for the Championship, where Cassidy has longed for glory in the county colours, Donegal's gearing up for Sunday's game has been much more intense that it had been for the Armagh game twelve months ago.

"We've done a wee bit more hard training before the Championship than we had the chance to do last year," he said. "We've done all the hard work and it's behind us, but we won't know really until we cross that white line on Sunday.

"Derry will have seen us last year and will be saying to themselves 'look what happened them last year' so it will probably come down to the last couple of minutes."

Despite a couple of injury worries and departures of one kind or the others, Cassidy feels that, overall, the squad of 2008 is a stronger one.

"I think it is possibly stronger alright," he said.

"We have a lot of options this year. There were a lot of young lads who came into the squad, who were maybe too young last year. I think we can look to the bench and easily fill a position if someone isn't performing - that was something that we couldn't do last year.

"We sat down at the start of the year and every player, from 1 to 30, said that we really need to drive this home.

"These boys are a fantastic bunch and they've put in a massive effort this year. It doesn't take me or Brian McIver to go around and tell them what to do. The boys know what has to be done."