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Derry's recent Championship record against Donegal is far from impressive. A quick trawl through our ten most recent encounters with the Tír Chonaill men shows seven defeats and just three wins. The record goes back as far as the late 1980's when Donegal started the first of three consecutive victories against the Oak Leafers with a narrow Ulster semi-final win in 1989. They recorded a more facile victory in another semi-final one year later at a sparsely populated Clones. In the four Ulster semi-finals the sides have contested in this time, Donegal have won all of them.

The sides have met in four Ulster Finals in their last ten championship meetings, with the spoils being shared at two apiece. The two counties famously enjoying Anglo-Celt victories over each other en route to their All-Ireland successes in the early 1990s.

If there is a glimmer of light for Derry in this rather unfavourable recent rivalry, it's that in the one Ulster SFC quarter-final clash between the sides, it was the Oak Leafers who came out on top - in Ballybofey in 2008. That is pretty much in keeping with Derry's excellent first-round record: 20 wins in 25 years.

This Saturday's latest renewal against our neighbours will also be a quarter-final at Ballybofey, so don't write us off just yet.

2011 Ulster Final: Donegal 1-11 Derry 0-8
2009 All-Ireland qualifier Rd 3: Donegal 2-13 Derry 0-18 (aet)
2008 Ulster SFC quarter-final: Donegal 1-12 Derry 1-14
2006 Ulster SFC semi-final: Donegal 1-13 Derry 0-11
2002 Ulster SFC semi-final: Donegal 1-9 Derry 0-10
1998 Ulster Final: Derry 1-7 Donegal 0-8
1993 Ulster Final: Derry 0-8 Donegal 0-6
1992 Ulster Final: Donegal 0-14 Derry 1-9
1990 Ulster SFC semi-final: Donegal 1-15 Derry 0-8
1989 Ulster SFC semi-final: Donegal 2-8 Derry 1-9