Jim Gavin has a lot of time for Donegal and their "excellent manager", Jim McGuinness.

The Dubs close the round-robin phase of their league campaign with a tricky away trip to the All-Ireland champions' back yard and, even though the Tir Chonail men haven't been firing on all cylinders this Spring, visiting manager Gavin expects a difficult Sunday afternoon:

"Jim's an excellent manager. His results speak volumes for the work he has done with Donegal," Gavin says in today's Irish Times.

"I think they've done quite well. They've been unlucky in games they didn't get results in but been very competitive in all their games. This will be no different, they'll be looking to get a result, no more than ourselves, to act as a launching pad for their big game against Tyrone in a couple of weeks time.

"They are very structured and organised in defence. Jim and Rory [Kavanagh] have been with them for a few years now so the players would be comfortable with the structure they have. They've got some top class forwards - McBrearty, McFadden, Murphy - so they will all hurt us if given space to score.

"This weekend marks the fourth month we've been with the squad so a lot of work has been done, with a lot more to do. There is eight weeks to championships so it is incremental progress but we haven't had the full squad that we wanted until last weekend.

"Travelling away to Ballybofey is a great opportunity to be with the players, you've got some contact time with them and sometimes it's nice to travel. I've always enjoyed travelling away with Dublin football teams because you get more time with the players." Tweet

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