'We left that Monaghan game behind us . . . we're disappointed with that' - McNulty

Donegal manager John McNulty acknowledged that while Monaghan proved to be a worthy opposition, he admitted to being disappointed that his side did not leave Truagh with all three points in the bag, following his side’s 1-13 to 2-10 drawn league match away to the Farney County. 

The home side nearly snatched victory at the end with a match-winning free kick, only for Scotstown native Eabha Sherry to blast the ball to the left and wide as the match finished level with Donegal relieved that they could escape out of Monaghan with at least a draw. 

“I’ll probably be happy with the fact that we got a draw when the dust settles a bit,” said McNulty following the match. “I’m a bit disappointed that we’re not going down the road with three points. We were leading coming down the home straight and we had a great chance of a goal, but it was not to be. 

“They got a free in the final play, that was taken back I think because of a foot block earlier in the box, so it ended up being a penalty which they scored, but even from there, to be fair to the players, the reaction was very good, Katie Long kicked a score over the bar to try and win it, but I think the frees given away killed us.” 

While the Kilcar native credits his side’s effort as well as praising the attitude of the opposition and their will to win, he points to the consistent fouling from his players in defence as the catalyst for Monaghan’s resurgence. 

“Like talking about the free count, that’s where they got the equaliser from. Credit to Monaghan, they never gave in and I’m sure they’re very happy with the result but for me, I felt we left the game behind us,” McNulty stated. 

“A win would’ve put us in a great position in terms of climbing the league, but that’s just the way it is. On the other side of that, Monaghan were fighting for their lives to stay up and they showed that against us. We got nothing easy. They were very hard to break down and credit to them they came out in the second half and got their draw.” 

The Donegal boss points to his side’s development and states that he has a young squad that are consistently learning how to grind out tough wins on the round and acknowledges that if his side were playing at home, he has no doubt they would’ve saw the game out for the win. 

“I think if we were at home, it may have been a different story, but look we have to come to these places and learn to win on the road, but that takes a bit of experience which the young players will learn in time. 

“At the moment we are in a building process, and we have to keep at it. We’re looking forward to the Tyrone game in two weeks' time and we’ll just take it from there.” 

Donegal have now dropped points against Monaghan and Kildare, who they lost to at home in round 2, despite leading both games at half time, but McNulty does not draw parallels between the games, seeing them as two different types of matches. 

“I think the lead at half time against Kildare was a bit different. Against Kildare, overall that day, they were the better team and deserved the win. Whereas today, I think we created enough chances to see the game out. There were scores from easy positions which we missed and we’re going to have to work on. 

“For now, we just have to concentrate on Tyrone. We’re not getting ahead of ourselves, and we know there’s things we need to improve on. There’s a lot of positives too. We scored 1-13 which is great, and we’re always looking to see if we can increase our scoring each game. 

“It’s about trying to get all these small things together, sometimes they work for you and sometimes they don’t. All we can do is improve for Tyrone and then improve on that game for the match against Cavan after that.”