McGuinness: 'We did a good job to get over the line with 20 minutes to spare'

Jim McGuinness admitted that following his side’s loss to Tyrone in the first weekend of the round-robin series in the All-Ireland SFC, he always felt his team would have to go the long way round to reach the quarter-finals.

And so it proved, although whatever fears there were for Donegal on both the injury front and in terms of results following that 2-17 to 0-20 loss seem to have almost receded, with only Caolan McGonagle the one now trying to with his way back in. 

Donegal got back on the road with wins over Cavan and Mayo to seal a place in the last 12 and then went through the gears to defeat Louth 2-22 to 0-12 at MacCumhaill Park.

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“Very happy, very happy obviously, one game more than we wanted but at the same time we're happy to take the game,” McGuinness said in Ballybofey. “Whenever we could beat against Tyrone we knew we'd be in this situation potentially and we were targeting these three weekends. So we're delighted we have an opportunity at the third game now. 

“That's the most important thing, and we'll take the positives from the day, obviously loads and bits of pieces to work on as well, particularly in the first half in terms of decision making and stuff.”

Donegal scored goals from Conor O’Donnell and when Ciaran Thompson grabbed his first ever championship goal in his 50th appearance in the 50th minute, the game was up for Louth. Off went the likes of Michael Murphy and Ryan McHugh, with Odhran McFadden-Ferry back in, and Niall O’Donnell reappearing for the first time since kicking the winner in the Ulster SFC final against Armagh. Donegal will now play either Meath or Monaghan in the All-Ireland quarter-finals next weekend.

“It was a very good display in the second half,” McGuinness added. “We were clinical and did a good job to get over the line and get over the line with 20 minutes to spare, basically and give us a chance to get some players on the pitch as well that have been doing well in training. 

“So it was a double edged sword for us in the first half, we weren't being clinical and we were turning the ball over and they were hurting us, in the second half we were able to defend well and that gave us a platform to attack and we were putting the ball dead, so that would probably be the summary of the game to be honest.”