We can’t feel sorry for ourselves; we have to keep at it - McGee

“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We just have to keep at it,” said Neil McGee, speaking after Donegal lost out to Tyrone in MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey in the first game in the All-Ireland Series.

In difficult conditions Donegal never really got to the pitch of the contest and even though they did get their noses in front in the final 10 minutes, Tyrone closed out the game to win by three points.

The Red Hands were really up for the game and had the benefit of a four week run-in while Donegal had a really tough four-game Ulster campaign.

“I know from experience, Tyrone sitting in the long grass, they are a dangerous animal, particularly now with a top class manager in there now every night motivating them. They were sitting waiting for us. They were at the pitch of it from early on.

“We probably gave them energy too, bringing the ball into contact too much early on. That was one of the big messages we had to get in, particularly with the greasy ball. It was about keeping the ball moving and avoiding contact. We didn’t do that and gave them a wee bit of momentum into the game.

“Never mind the couple of goals we gave them. The first one was a mistake but we would be more disappointed with the second one; we got breached far too easily.  Seanie O’Donnell was picking it up and getting through the middle far too easy.

“We addressed that at half-time but there was damage done in the first half to be sure.”

Donegal did well to get back in the contest in the second half and when Patrick McBrearty hit a two pointer to nudge them in front in the final 10 minutes, McGee felt they should have been able to exert more control.

“We won the next kick-out which was huge. I think it was Odhran Doc (Doherty) who fought for it. We had the ball in our hands. Particularly in games that we have been through, in the Ulster final, we have managed those situations well. We just coughed the ball up.

“There were a couple of times we saw it coming on the line. We just weren’t that sharp; we weren’t at the pitch of it.

“We showed good character to get back into the game, particularly Michael Langan, Finnbarr (Roarty) with turnovers; Murphy. But we were chasing the game two or three different times. But once you’re chasing, it takes it out of you and boys were fatiguing there at the end.”

Asked about the kick-outs in the final five minutes with most of them sent in the direction of Michael Murphy, McGee said: “Once the ball goes long now, the stats are showing that it’s 50/50. So it's about hunger getting under the breaks and maybe Tyrone were a little hungrier getting in on the breaks.”

There will be learnings from the game and McGee says they will have to sit down and analyse it.

“What do we learn? We base everything off analysis; we watch the game and boys will be watching them games already. There’s no point in me talking on a whim here. Until you actually sit down and watch the game, that’s where you learn. That’s what we do now.”

One thing that hurt McGee was losing out on home soil. “That’s a big one. You can talk about tactics and everything. But once your neighbours are coming into Ballybofey you just don’t want to lose it. Pride will take a bit of a hit, but you have to put the chin up and move on because you have no time to hang about.”

Donegal had a wide tally of 12, which was above their norm and McGee was conscious of that. “Probably some bad decisions, high percentage shots. But on the other hand Tyrone had a lot of wides too. Niall Morgan had a great save there too from Langan.”

As for a concern of creating goal chances, McGee was more worried about the chances they were coughing up.

“We’re creating chances but probably not creating enough. What we will be looking at is conceding goals,” said McGee, who said they had to press up on Niall Morgan for the kick-outs and that created space for Tyrone over the top.”

On the night Donegal were hampered by a large number of the panel carrying injuries with Jason McGee not included in the matchday squad.

“He had just a niggle from the Ulster final, just a niggle. Poor Jason, he’s had a bad run of it. He was a big loss and we’ll try to get him back for next week,” said McGee, who said it was a similar position with Shaun Patton, who has an ankle injury. “Hopefully, we will have him back. He should be alright. Shaun was in the form of his life.”

McGee also confirmed that Niall O’Donnell and Peadar Mogan had niggles and that was the reason Mogan was a sub and O’Donnell was not used.

“We had a lot of niggles. That was a tough game, the Ulster final and we had a lot of niggles from it.”

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The Gaoth Dobhair man is now hoping that Mayo can do them a favour next weekend when they travel to  Omagh to play Tyrone while Donegal go to Breffni Park to play Cavan.

“We are probably looking at trying to get the win next week (against Cavan) and hoping Mayo can do us a favour. We’re just hoping for that now to give us the best chance going into the last round,” said McGee.