Mac's View: Great day all round in Fr Tierney Park, Ballyshannon on Sunday

It was a great day all round in Fr Tierney Park, Ballyshannon on Sunday with the four point win over Kerry. I know Kerry were short the Cliffords, but any day you beat Kerry is a good day.

And the field in Ballyshannon looked mighty. There was a lovely atmosphere and a full house and the sun shone brightly.

There was a spell near the end when Donegal took their eye off the ball and they could have been made to pay a heavy penalty if the Kerry goal had come early. It is an area where the management will have to have a long look at.

The old tactic of lobbing the ball in high and see what happens might not be used too often nowadays but on Sunday it caused a lot of confusion and Donegal didn’t deal that well with it. Kerry got that late goal and the margin was down to three points. But thankfully we held on and it was fitting that Michael Murphy was on the end of the break to lob over the insurance point.

But overall, it was a great performance from Donegal. We are now very strong in the midfield sector with Michael Langan moving in there to help beside Hugh McFadden and Jason McGee. And I was really pleased to see Big G’s son, Kieran Gallagher, in there as well on Sunday. He added to the physical presence and made a couple of great fetches.

The win takes Donegal into joint top of the table on four points and it almost secures the Divisional status for the year after just two games. The next game, however, will be an even tougher test with Mayo coming to Letterkenny. They have regrouped and have a new manager in Andy Moran and seem to be going very well. They are always a very good league team and they will have plenty of support with them for O’Donnell Park. When they are doing well, they always have support.

For Donegal, there would be nothing wrong now to have a cut at the league. It would be good for us to get to a league final.

On Sunday once again we did well in the period before and after half-time. The goal from Dáire Ó Baoill was finished in clinical style, a hallmark of the Gaoth Dobhair man. But the game also showed that you cannot have any slippage at any period. We were nine points up at one stage but that was whittled away to three. Sean O’Shea kicked some mighty scores for Kerry in the second half.

I was sorry to find out that David Clifford had not travelled as he would have made it even more difficult but then again maybe we should be thankful for small mercies. A lot of people went to the game to see Clifford and it was evident that Kerry were very reliant on Sean O’Shea and Tony Brosnan for scores and Donegal did much better on Brosnan in the second half.

The big takeaway from the game is that we know that Kerry won’t be far away this year again. Their manager Jack O’Connor,  normally fairly grumpy after games, seemed to be very happy with the way his side performed without so many of their first team players.

As for Donegal, it was good to see Michael Murphy and Oisin Gallen back but I wouldn’t rush Murphy at this stage. I would leave him at home for the trip to Armagh and use him sparingly in any other game. It was nice to see Oisin Gallen back and hopefully he will be injury free from now on.

We have a gem in Finnbarr Roarty. He is something else, a big, big addition to the squad. We still have a couple of injuries and it would be nice to see big Stephen McMenamin and Mark Curran being fit for game time as we don’t have that much cover in the full-back line.

 The two week break to the Mayo game will be welcome. It will give Jim and his backroom team some time to analyse those last 10 minutes. Nine points up and coasting, but you are never coasting in the modern game.

And talking of the new rules, there is a need for a review after a couple of incidents over the opening couple of weeks. Handing the ball back and its interpretation caused problems in week one and last weekend the breach of not having sufficient players in defence was the issue, especially in Armagh, where a huge call led to Galway getting a vital goal.

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The rule changes have been very good for the game but there is always room to tweak them if they are not working properly.

Finally this week, I want to wish Pauric McShea a quick recovery. We all got a bit of shock on Sunday at the game when he took ill but I’m happy to say that he is being well looked and should be back to full health soon.

Brian McEniff was in conversation with Peter Campbell