'That's the road we want to go down' - McGuinness to give young stars every chance

Jim McGuinness says Donegal got all they could out of the Dr McKenna Cup - admitting that he wants to stick with as many of his young guns for as long as possible.

Following a 1-15 to 0-11 win over Antrim on Sunday last and then a 1-18 to 1-16 success over Derry on Wednesday, McGuinness, in his seventh season as Donegal manager over two spells, won the competition for the first time.

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Victory in the final came on a 2-17 to 0-11 scoreline against Monaghan at Healy Park, six days out from Donegal’s opening National Football League Division One fixture away to Dublin at Croke Park.

McGuinness has introduced 10 new faces in the last week and, as well as Shea Malone’s 2-1, Turlough Carr, Kevin Muldoon, Eoin McGeehin, Caolan McColgan, and Conor McCahill all scored. Then, to round it off, in stepped Jason McGee with a belter of a two-pointer, and Ryan McHugh read the last verse.

“It's been six days, and then we made a lot of changes, so it's hard to get the feeling sometimes,” McGuinness said afterwards of the trio of fixtures. “We made a lot of changes in Monaghan; they did the same, they made an awful lot of changes. But no, listen, it's a good week for us, we got out of it what we wanted to get out of it.

“All the younger lads got a run at it, the senior lads got a good few minutes, and from that point of view it's been very positive. We were just speaking to the coaches in the dressing room there, and that's exactly what it's going to be with a lot of them, it's going to be ups and downs.

“You're trying to develop them and you're trying to give them exposure, but they have to play and make mistakes to move along that continuum. So definitely, yeah, that's going to be part of it. But that's the road we want to go down, to be honest with you. We want to keep it going now, we want to keep that going. Keep giving as many players exposure as we can, keep developing and trying to create a wee bit of depth for the summer if we can, and hopefully get enough points along the way in the league.”