By Chris McNulty

BRIAN McIver leads Donegal into the county's third Championship sojourn under his tutelage on Sunday afternoon when he takes the Tir Chonaill men into battle with his home county team just months after it looked like a new man would don the Bainsteoir bib for the 2008 series.

Within an hour of Donegal exiting the 2007 race for Sam following a horrendous defeat to Monaghan in Healy Park, Omagh at the end of July, the Ardboe native, who lives in Ballinderry, called time on his intercounty management career.

Helm

The dust was let settle, however, and by the time the applications were being sifted through, McIver had declared an interest and before end of the autumn he was back at the helm and once again leading the glory bid from one of the enigmatic forces in gaelic football.

2007, in many ways, showcased the classic stereotypical Donegal. Having excelled throughout the National League on their way to a first ever title and then having sent Armagh packing to the qualifiers all was rosy beneath Errigal's gaze. However, Tyrone were waiting in the long grass and a capitulation on Donegal's behalf saw green and gold supporters depart St Tiernach's Park, Clones in a familiar dejected mood following a disastrous defeat.

Hard work

When the wheels looked to be well in motion again, Monaghan crushed McIver's men on a night to forget in Omagh.

With two years of hard work behind him though, McIver had a change of heart having met with players and selectors and, speaking to the press on Tuesday afternoon last, the manager outlined the progress he feels has been made since he came on board.

"It's like anything else in life," he reflected. "We started two years ago in Division Two and the priority then was to get out of that Division and get into the top flight to play Division One football.

"Last year, then, we performed very well in the National League and the players showed that they could achieve at the highest level. Last year, the players got a number of monkeys off their backs in that they went into Croke Park and won the National League semi final and then won the National League final.

"A number of players, for the first time in their career, were winning titles. It's stepping stones and this year we would hope to build on the progress."

Residing deep in the heart of Derry GAA territory and having led his local club, Ballinderry, to All Ireland Club Championship success some years back, McIver has a in-depth knowledge of the game in the land of the Oak Leaf.

However, he was keen to play down his know-how of the Derry way of operating.

"My knowledge of Derry football is one thing, but come four o'clock on Sunday I ain't going to make any catches or blocks, nor am I going to score any points. It will be down to the players on the field of play. It really is up to us to perform."

While it may be true to say that McIver senior may not have much of a bearing on proceedings on the field on Sunday, his son Michael will have a big part to play - he is half-back on the Derry team, meaning the McIver's Ballinderry home will be an interesting one come breakfast time on Sunday morning. McIver junior bagged a point in the recent League meetings of the sides in Letterkenny.

"He does it against me regularly, so let's hope he has a dry spell here on Sunday. It's one of those scenarios: He has a job to do for Derry and I have a job to do for Donegal.

"We'll wish each other the best of luck on Sunday morning and that's as far as it goes. He wants to win for Derry and I want to win for Donegal."

Another McIver son, Paul, is on the Donegal backroom team and he along with team trainer Ryan Porter has been busy fine-tuning the squad and putting the final preparations to the side ahead of the big showdown.

Injuries

While the preparations have been going reasonably well, injuries have hampered slightly with concerns this week over the fitness of Michael Murphy, while Leon Thompson and Niall McCready are ruled out.

The biggest debate of late in relation to Donegal has centred around Brendan Devenney, although McIver moved on Tuesday last to quell the speculation, noting that the St Eunan's man could be back in the squad for the next game. " He was never out of contention," said McIver.

"You're never 100% happy with your preparations going into the championship. We'd liked to have given some of the players more time in the National League, but given the nature of the injuries that wasn't possible.

"We were all set for Leon Thompson and we were hoping that he would have had games behind him.

"I would say that he would've been starting on Sunday, but he got his jaw broke and that ruled him out."

With the pit-falls of peaking during the League were outlined last year, Donegal took a more relaxed approach to the League this time around, yet McIver still feels that it serves a valuable purpose.

"Everybody sort of underestimates the value of the League, but when you're involved the games are of the highest standard - and it was the same across all the Divisions," he said.

Different issue

"But, the championship is a different issue and last year, having won the national title, we would liked to have went as well as we could in the championship.

"We were obviously disappointed that we didn't do that, but we'd hope that this time we could have a really good run in the championship. But, because of the nature of Ulster Championship football you don't know.

"Derry will provide some obstacle in the first game unlike some of the other provinces."

Back to last year's Championship and those bitter pills of defeat are still being digested from Malin to Bundoran and from Lifford to Gweedore.

A win on Sunday would go a long way in easing the pain and, as the manager pointed out, it will only be on Sunday that it will be known what has been learned from the wrongs of 2007.

Big games

"Last year was very hard to gauge and I don't think there is one easy answer to that. I feel that we got caught in terms of we had a lot of big games.

"We had Kildare where we had to go to Croke Park and win then there was the National League final followed three weeks later by Armagh.

"Maybe, maybe we drifted into the Tyrone game. I wouldn't be sure that I would put it down solely to that. Tyrone and Armagh play different style and their (Tyrone) mobility caused us a lot of problems. We were disappointed that day against Tyrone and also ultimately when we went out against Monaghan.

"Hopefully the lessons have been learned and the extent to which we have learned them will only be proven on Sunday."

See Monday's Donegal News for all the action from Sunday's game.