Luke Barrett disappointed but proud of his Donegal players

Donegal manager Luke Barrett was disappointed with the five-point defeat by Derry.

But he was also immensely proud of how the lads stuck to the game plan and but for a number of missed chances the outcome could have been different.

“We spoke all week about keeping it tight, staying in the game right up to the last 15 minutes,” said the Donegal boss. We did that and we probably had enough chances in the second half to win two games. But we did not take them.

“We had two clear goal chances and we did not take them. If you do not take them against quality opposition like Derry they will punish you.”

He also felt a five-point winning margin flattered Derry and that Derry were in no way a five point better team than Donegal.

“I don’t think the scoreline of 0-9 to 0-5 did not reflect the game. For long periods in the second half we dominated but we did not take our chances.”

Donegal got large numbers behind the ball in the first half and held Derry to four points and were only two behind them at half-time.

Barrett also admitted the plan was to keep it tight in the first half and be still in the game at half-time and still be in touch going into the closing quarter.

“If you look at Derry’s performances over the last couple of games they have been all over at half-time. Even in the game against us in Ballybofey they were 2-6 to 0-3 up at half-time.

“Fifty percent of the game is without the ball. People can say what they want about it but the game is never going to go back to the way it used to be played. It is about evolution.

“The game has evolved. It is all about defending and I thought our defending and our collective defending was unbelievable. They got inside our 20 metre line for the first time in the 64 th minute when we were pressing the ball.”

Donegal did change tack and pushed up on Derry in the second half and ran at them and enjoyed a good spell of dominance.

“In the second half we pressed high up on their kickouts and we got into the game and dominated for a good spell. In the first minute of the second half we got inside their 20 metre line and we should have scored a goal.

“Conor McCahill then hit the post and while we had two men to one Derry player covering the shot the ball broke to the Derry man.

“When you see things like that happening and every ball is breaking for them you begin to wonder if it is going to your day.

“Jack Hegarty got sent off from that play too which was unfortunate. We had a couple of ‘45s that did not go over either.”

The manager would not be drawn on the second half sending off Jack Hegarty for a second yellow card offence. Other than to say; if you look at the quality of refereeing over the last few weeks it has been questionable.

“Jack got sent off for a second yellow card and right before that one of the Derry lads threw a ball at one of our lads. We could see it and the crowd could see but no action was taken”.

Despite the defeat the Milford clubman said he was unbelievably proud of the effort the players put in day and right through the season. And insisted no effort was spared by the management on preparing and coaching the team.

“We’ve given everything we have to give. We’ve prepared the team to the best of our ability and the players can see that too.

“It is a disappointing day for the players but they’ll have loads of days to look forward to in the Donegal jersey and most of them will have good club careers as well.

“This is a development squad. We brought high standards to them. We taught them how to train and how to prepare at a very high level and that is all we can do.

“It is a positive for Donegal going forward to the U20 and there are a good few of them minor again next year and hopefully they will carry the hurt of losing today with them.”