Jim McGuinness content with Mayo win but says still some creases to be ironed out

Jim McGuinness watched his side move onto six points in Letterkenny with victory over Mayo but the boss says there are still some issues that Donegal need to address. 

Donegal earned a comfortable 1-19 to 0-14 win over Andy Moran’s men and now stand alone as the only team left with a one hundred percent record in Division 1 of the NFL. 

READ NEXT: Marksmen: How Donegal players rated against Mayo in Letterkenny 

Donegal exited at the break 0-11 to 0-5 clear and even though they pulled up with eight to spare at the end, McGuinness was cautious in his appraisal after. 

“Obviously, you want to get more points on the board and we’re again delighted to do that,” he explained.  

“From that point of view, it was a good day’s work. First half in particular, we’d be very happy with a lot of it. We asked a lot of good questions. 

“Our build-up was good, our established attack was very good. We were good on our kickouts. In the second half, we dropped off again. It’s the same conversation really that we had the weekend of the Kerry game. 

“Our numbers were down on the second half. Mayo seemed to get their kickouts away a little easier than we did. We also became a little bit sloppier on the ball. 

“So some of the same things are still there that we need to address. But, the flip side to that was we were up against a side that’s very strong, very powerful and aggressive in the way they want to step to you. 

“In the main, we met that challenge really, really well”. 

Conor McCahill made his first start for Donegal and the Four Masters teen, still a Leaving Cert student, repaid that faith with three well-taken points from play. 

“He’s very honest. He’s been very good in training. He works so hard. The big thing with him is that it’s such a massive step up. 

“But we know what he’s done at underage football. So the advice to him beforehand was to just go in and be himself - be natural and be relaxed. 

“And if the chances arise, just look to kick scores. And he did all of that really well. We’re delighted for him”.