Mac's View: Defeat in terrible conditions in Roscommon may be blessing in disguise

Donegal’s first defeat of the year in Dr Hyde Park, Roscommon on Sunday may well turn out to be a blessing in disguise. It was a game that was played in conditions that were probably unplayable at times with the gale force wind and hailstones.

I was watching the game in Tenerife with plenty of Donegal supporters around me and I thought after 10-12 minutes of the second half we were going to win the game quite easily. We had turned over 11 points down but we were shaping up very well and hitting some good two  pointers with the wind at our backs, those from Michael Langan and Shea Malone particularly good to watch.

We were back within two points with 20 minutes to go and there was only a point in it with 60 minutes on the clock. But we just didn’t kick on and we allowed Roscommon, whose need was much greater than ours, dictate the last 10 minutes, something which hadn’t happened in any of our games up to last Sunday.

There was also a recurring theme harking back to last year’s All-Ireland final loss to Kerry in that we allowed one opposing forward dictate the game. Back in July it was Paudie Clifford who was allowed too much space and on Sunday last Enda Smith was the one player who caused us so much trouble. But I suppose last Sunday was a bit different with the really tough playing conditions. It would have been almost impossible for the sideline to get the vital information through to the players on the field.

Despite the defeat Donegal are still in pole position to make the league final even if Jim McGuinness again seemed to say that the emphasis is on development and getting ready for Down in the Ulster championship rather than getting to the league final.

READ NEXT: McShea's Say: Donegal must take real learnings from defeat in Dr Hyde Park

It was a defeat but it may be a blessing in disguise because Donegal might learn more from Sunday last than they have done in other games. One thing that shone through was that Donegal didn’t have the energy or intensity that they had in all of their other games.

The play was very controlled but they lacked a cutting edge with very few players actually making a cut to try and open gaps in the Roscommon defence.

The only downside is that winning can be a very good habit but I have a feeling that Jim McGuinness and his backroom team will not be overly worried about the result last Sunday. Jim did say that they hadn’t trained that much since the Galway game. I had heard that they gave the panel a week off and then it was difficult to find training facilities as the pitches at the Convoy Training Centre were all out of bounds due to the very heavy rain during the week.

But now we have Monaghan next Sunday in Clones and we still have our destiny in our own hands. We should not take Monaghan lightly but in truth they have been really struggling this year, which is not like them. We should be good enough to get a result.

The final round of games has seven of the eight teams with something to play for. Monaghan, who were relegated after losing to Galway on Sunday, are the only team who have nothing to play for. Donegal and Kerry have the league final places in their own hands while Mayo meet Roscommon and if one of Donegal or Kerry slip up, then they would be playing for a final place.

Sunday will be a fantastic day of football with the games in the four divisions taking place. Promotion and relegation battles will be at stake in all of the other divisions as well and Donegal will be looking at how well Down are playing, having a 100% record in Division 3 and looking one of the form teams of the league so far.

It will be a big weekend for the other Donegal teams as well with the minors, hurlers and Ladies all having games over Saturday and Sunday.

Good luck to Karl Lacey and the Donegal Minors, who host Armagh in Convoy. Mickey McCann takes the Donegal hurlers to Roscommon and they need a win to get back on track for promotion while James Daly’s Ladies make the long journey to Clonmel on Sunday to take on Tipperary and need a win to stay on track for promotion.

By the time you read this our U-20s will have played their first game at home to Fermanagh and hopefully will  have got off to a winning start. I see they have named Finnbarr Roarty as captain and Callum McCrea as vice-captain. They have a very strong panel and hopefully will hope to be in the running for honours again this year.

Brian McEniff was in conversation with Peter Campbell