Bonner thankful to have ‘the best left foot in the business’ in a Donegal jersey

Donegal manager Declan Bonner was praiseworthy of the performance of Patrick McBrearty, following his man of the match award in Portglenone.

McBrearty was Donegal’s leading light against Antrim, with the Kilcar forward kicking seven scores against Enda McGinley’s team and providing much more besides.

“It’s important we get Paddy sharp as there’s no better left foot in the business and he put in a good shift in terms of workrate and in terms of scoring,” Bonner said of the corner-forward. “He’s been training and he’s mad keen to get playing.”

Donegal do enough to see off Antrim to reach Dr McKenna Cup semi-finals

In the end, Bonner’s side ran out winners on a 0-15 to 1-9 scoreline and when the dust settled it was learned that they would have home advantage against Derry in the semi-final on Tuesday, having won the toss of a coin over the venue.

Rory Gallagher’s side, who asked serious questions of Donegal in last year’s Ulster SFC quarter-final only for McBrearty to settle the issue with a fantastic late point, booked their place in the last four courtesy of a 0-17 to 1-10 win over Fermanagh at Roslea. Derry drew their opening fixture 0-12 apiece with Monaghan in Owenbeg.

Despite a number of Donegal’s panel being tied to their colleges this week for the Sigerson Cup, and Brendan McCole and Eoghan Ban Gallagher picking up knocks in Antrim, Bonner is of the opinion the Derry fixture and the McKenna Cup in general, is vital preparation for the upcoming Allianz League.

Donegal open their Division 1 campaign against Mayo in Sligo on Sunday week and Derry - who romped to Division 3 success in 2021 - will be chomping at the bit to get their Division 2 campaign off to a good start against Down.

“For me the McKenna Cup is so, so important in terms of getting preparation before going into the National League,” Bonner added. “We’re going to get a really good challenge on Tuesday night.”

Donegal do enough to see off Antrim to reach Dr McKenna Cup semi-finals

Bonner took on the likes of Michael Murphy, Michael Langan, Paul and Jamie Brennan, and Odhran McFadden-Ferry in the second half against a well-drilled Antrim side, under the management of Tyrone’s three-time All-Ireland winner Enda McGinley.

“We knew coming up here it was going to be a good, competitive match and that they were going to be well organised under Enda,” Bonner added. “The first half we wouldn’t have been happy with the turnovers and unforced errors.

“We weren’t completing attacks but defensively we were good. In the second half our ball retention was better. We brought the experience into that last 25 minutes. The younger lads did very well. You can't beat competitive matches.”

Donegal did concede a rather bizarre goal at the start of the second half when goalkeeper Shaun Patton was adjudged by an umpire to have carried Conor Murray’s dropping short effort at a point over the line. Bonner, though, had no complaints over the award saying “the umpires had the best view of it.”