Lacey keen to tidy up on silly mistakes after defeat to Monaghan

Donegal Minor manager Karl Lacey was in a disappointed mood after his side lost out by 1-16 to 0-17 in the second round of the Ulster Minor League.

Against a heavy breeze in the first half, Donegal found themselves 0-12 to 0-6 behind at the break in Convoy.

Backed with the wind, they were hit with a blow as Peter Gilmartin found the net for the Farney men soon after the restart.

And while they tagged on two-pointers from Tadhg McDaid, and two each from MJ Ward and Darragh O’Hare, their opponents kept them at bay as Donegal could never get that levelling score.

It leaves Donegal on one point from their opening two games after an away draw with Antrim.

“I’m disappointed for the lads,” Lacey said after the game.

“They’ve put in a huge amount of effort over the last number of weeks, and we got up and running last weekend against Antrim with a disappointing result.

“We were hoping to put that right here, but we just came up short, so I’m gutted for them. It was silly mistakes, and we got back into the game with the strong breeze out there. We had a bit of luck before half-time when they missed the (two-point) free, and we were six down at half-time, so I felt we were in a good enough position.

READ NEXT: Jim McGuinness names Donegal team for trip to Roscommon

“But we conceded the goal at the start of the second half, which was scrappy, and things like that just don’t seem to be going our way at the moment. We know ourselves that only we can bring our own luck, so it’s back to the drawing board at training on Monday night, and we'll look forward to another home game against Armagh next Saturday.

After a trio of two-pointers to make it a three-point game, Donegal lost full back Mark Wilkinson to a black card with a quarter of an hour to go, and that halted their momentum.

“Energy-wise and fatigue-wise, that took a lot out of us. Monaghan are clever players, and they kept the ball well and dragged our defence over and back the pitch a couple of times, and that is very tiring.

“We just couldn’t get level and push on. Conor Griffin got a good point, and we won the next kick out, but we got turned over then, and you’re going to get that at this level, it’s almost Championship style this Ulster League, and every team are going at it to find out where we are.

“There are still loads of positives to take out of it compared to where we were last week, and we’re looking forward to getting another game next weekend.”