'Written in the stars' - Goal-hero Langan savours 100th Donegal outing with family

Michael Langan suggested that it might’ve been “written in the stars” as he bagged a goal on his 100th appearance for Donegal in their dramatic All-Ireland quarter-final comeback win over Monaghan.

The St Michael’s midfielder and his teammates would not have been dwelling on the ceremony of it at half-time, as they looked leggy and trailed 1-15 to 0-11. However, the excellent second half turnaround with Langan instrumental, when they outscored Monaghan 1-15 to 0-5 to win 1-26 to 1-20, set the side managed by Jim McGuinness up for the semi-finals in two weeks' time.

Afterwards, Creeslough native Langan made a beeline to the Lower Hogan Stand to meet his mother and father, Mary and Mark, and other proud family members.

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“My family travel everywhere, and it was nice that I got to see them there after the game to share a moment with them,” Langan said afterwards. “It’s something I can look back on again. I only first thought about the 100 games when it was mentioned earlier this year that I was close.

“It’s special - any day you get to put on the Donegal jersey, it’s special. Even if you get to put it on that one time, it’s special; 100 times is very special. It’s a really proud day for my family, and my club as well.

“Sometimes it’s written in the stars. I was really unhappy with myself in the first half and with how I performed. I said to myself at half-time, I need to find a way to play myself into this game and get my hands on ball and make something happen. The chance just arose and it was great to see it hit the back of the net.”

Langan, who debuted for Donegal in the 2017 Dr McKenna Cup against University of Ulster Jordanstown and first played championship that summer against Antrim, admitted that Donegal had work to do at the break. They had the shortest turnaround of all eight All-Ireland quarter-finalists, lining out at Croke Park just six days after defeating Louth 2-22 to 0-12 in Ballybofey.

“We didn’t have a great performance in the first half there, but we’re delighted to have turned it around in the second half,” he said. “It’s tough, the six days, with the turnaround. We’ve two weeks now to get it right and to get the bodies refreshed and do our analysis, and we’ll be good to go then.

“We’ve had a tough run until now and the six days is tough. The bodies were fresh, but we played a lot of games in the last couple of weeks. The six-day turnaround with the new rules is massive as the new rules definitely take it out of you.

“I don’t think there was panic stations at half-time but there definitely was a few harsh words. We weren’t happy with a few things that happened and there were a few things we needed to iron out. We were really unhappy with how we played and we needed to chat about the tactics and what went wrong and to put it right in the second half. We made a few tweaks and once we slowed it up in attack, the shots came in and we got it sorted then.”

The seven-point deficit was far from insurmountable, as Donegal set about their task right from the start of part two, with Langan’s stylish goal on 44 minutes a massive part in the seachange.

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“With the way the game goes now, with the new rules, there can be a huge momentum swing," he added. "So getting the goal and tagging on a few points really helped. Getting those three points at the start of the second half means you’re not much more than a kick of the ball in it. If Monaghan had’ve tagged on a few points, they would’ve been out of sight. Once we got a good start, we got the confidence back.

"We’ve been chatting all week, when you do get the chance to keep it low and hard and I kind of did the opposite, well, high and hard. Delighted to see it hit the back of the net and it was important. Monaghan had a few wides and a few that dropped short and that really sucks momentum out of you. It was massive for us, so once we got level and then ahead, it breeds confidence and you really could see it out there then. It was a great day.”