Carr: 'If Donegal people see the heart and spirit, they will get behind you'

“It was very special. It was an unusual kind of feeling,” said Donegal manager Paddy Carr speaking this week in the aftermath of a great 0-13 to 1-9 opening day win over Kerry in the opening Allianz National Football League game in Ballybofey.

“Because, without anyone necessarily saying it, the game and the performance seemed to carry a lot more significance than one would have thought of two points in a national league match. I suppose that was for all sorts of reasons,” 

The Donegal boss says there won’t be many changes for Sunday next when Donegal travel to Healy Park, Omagh in the second round of games.

“There was something very special that happened on Sunday,” he said. “It was a damp oul grey day and there was a very good following, and whatever happened there in the second half … I told the lads at half-time and before the game that if Donegal people see the heart and spirit that you lads have, they will get behind you.

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“I think that’s what happened. The crowd really lifted the lads in the last 10 minutes in particular,” said Carr.

The game was decided by a trademark point from newly appointed captain Patrick McBrearty, which brought the biggest cheer of the afternoon.

“You could not make that up, honest to God,” Carr added. “And a great block from Martin  Reilly there as well,” said Carr.

Carr was still on a high and he was full of praise for his charges, especially his captain and O’Reilly, who came in from the start to replace Jamie Grant.

“Martin wasn’t the only one, but he ran himself into the ground,” Carr said. “Jamie had the ‘flu last week and he wasn’t 100 per cent and it wouldn’t have been right to put him out there. He has played a lot of games in the last few weeks with DCU as well in the Sigerson Cup.”

The management had real confidence in the selected team and were fully behind them to transfer what they were doing on the training field to the game.

“I said it last week and again in the dressing room, we were hoping that the performance would reflect the kind of attitude and spirit that we see in these lads, in terms of when they are together and when they are committed,” Carr added.

“That’s all you can ask for, that they translate that out there onto the field. We were sluggish enough to get started. Early in the game we were finding it hard to find any passage of play together. Kerry came out, as those boys do; there would be no lack of confidence in the Kerry lads. They seemed to control all the ball there for periods in the first quarter,” said Carr, who said that the Donegal response was what you want to see in a squad.

“That rugged determination and steel.  Certain people wouldn’t have been surprised if Donegal had folded when we were six points down; quite the opposite happened.  The lads are very much aware that pretty much all of the scores that Kerry got, the goal and the points, they came from very obvious mistakes on our part.

“But I wouldn’t fault the lads on that. Because they were trying very hard. I never worry about lads making mistakes, because if they are making mistakes, a lot of the time they are trying to do the right thing, and they learn from that.

“If you are playing out of fear or worrying that you are going to be chastised for that; our emphasis would mainly be focused on what we want as opposed to what we don’t want.

“I would like to think that that message is getting through. There was a very positive message in the dressing room at half-time,” said Carr, who said that they wanted Donegal to keep on the front foot and that the game was there for the taking.

“There was a nice passage of play in the first 10 minutes of the second half. That was our first significant match and the lads know that they have to build on that and get a form of consistency into their performance. We can actually improve on that as well, I believe,” 

Carr paid tribute to his assistants Aidan O’Rourke and Paddy Bradley for the work they had done in training in getting Donegal to transition. The manager said: “It’s not that much about a change in style, but the significance of the speed of the ball being moved up the field.”

As for Sunday next, Carr will have to wait until later in the week to see how the players have recovered. He said there were a few knocks but that was to be expected after an intense battle.

“I don’t envisage any wholesale changes for Sunday against Tyrone,” said Carr, who felt it would be looking a lot brighter on the injury front after Sunday.

There is a two week break before the third league game, which is away to Monaghan on Sunday, February 19, and the break will be welcomed.

“You would be hoping to  be able to do some work with the missing lads over the following weekend,” said Carr. “There are some of the best footballers in the country sitting there in the dugout and we’re very hopeful and they will strengthen the squad.”

Asked about Hugh McFadden getting a run on Sunday, Carr said: “Hughie would know that he missed out a chunk of training and he was carrying an injury as well. Hughie coming off the field was because he had emptied the tank completely, which is as honest as you would want from him.

“In fairness to Hughie, he is a great leader on and off the field and  I feel Sunday will have brought him in a lot.”

Carr is not really worrying about what Tyrone will bring on Sunday, rather concentrating on Donegal.

“We can’t focus on anything other than just getting ourselves right,” he said. “The wish and collective desire is that we pick up where we left off. You have to take huge encouragement of the honesty of the endeavour out there on the field on a difficult wet pitch.

“Tyrone, in fairness to them, I know there has been a dip in form there. But they certainly will consider that they are in the home patch, and they are at the right pitch for us. It has the makings of a big game.

“It would be a lovely thing if all those people who made the effort to get to MacCumhaill Park on Sunday, if all of them could get down the road to Healy Park, because they gave the lads a huge encouragement in Ballybofey. We will kick on now and hopefully take up where we left off in Omagh on Sunday.”