Ronan MacNiallais makes no excuses for Gaoth Dobhair's loss away to Aodh Ruadh

Disappointed Gaoth Dobhair manager Ronan MacNiallais wasn’t making any excuses for his side’s somewhat surprising defeat to Aodh Ruadh after last week’s impressive win over Sean MacCumhaill’s in Magheragallon. 

But he admitted that Aodh Ruadh’s two goals inside a minute, early in the second half, and the dismissal of Eamon McGee ten minutes from time, were big factors in their 2-8 to 0-9 SFC defeat. 

“Ballyshannnon deserved to win and we knew that if we left space in behind that Aodh Ruadh would hurt us. We gave the ball away twice and they really punished. 

“They came in the space of a minute and for the first goal, our man was coming into the middle of the field and it was knocked out of his hand and they counter attacked at pace, which is what they do. 

“We had spoken about that and we knew it was coming, but when you give the ball away against a good team, you are going to get punished. 

“And the second goal was the same. They punished us again becasue Aodh Ruadh have plenty of class forwards. They had the space and they used it well.” 

Gaoth Dobhair could easily have been much further in front than just the  0-6 to 0-3 at the break as they had seven wides, five from petty scorable positions.

“We had seven wides in the first half and in Magheragallon last week, we had only one wide in the first half. 

“So that’s football as there are days they go over and there are days they don’t and I would have expected that if even half of them went over you are six points up at half time. 

“It’s a different game then, but I suppose we are not consistent in our displays. Last week was good and this week was poor.” 

Still, Gaoth Dobhair did not cave after being hit with a 2-2 salvo in the space of six minutes early in the second half. 

“They boys kept at it and brought the score back to 2-6 to 0-9 and then we lost Eamon McGee to a second yellow card and for the first one I thought the Aodh Ruadh player Colm Kelly should have got one too. 

“It was disappointing to lose Eamon as were kind of getting a grip on the game and then you are down to 14 men and you are scrambling a bit. 

“But you have to push up when you are down and Aodh Ruadh held us out well and countered with those two late points”