GAELIC GAMES:THE BONFIRES may not be at the ready in the hills of Donegal just yet, but Jim McGuinness was on fire as he fielded the media pack's questions in the bowels of Kingspan/Breffni Park.
Donegal took a significant step towards getting their hands back on the Anglo Celt Cup by booking a date with Tyrone in this year’s Ulster semi-final.
The rookie senior county manager was eloquent as he laid into his team’s critics: “I think some people seem to feel Donegal is a county that they can poke fun at, but I don’t like the way my players have been disrespected by sections of the media and others like Liam Bradley (Antrim manager),” McGuinness declared.
“I don’t have an issue about what people write or say about our style of play and our general performance levels on any particular day and while everybody is entitled to their opinion, players are entitled to be afforded due respect, but the line that shouldn’t be crossed was crossed on a number of occasions in recent months. I have a duty of care to my players and I will stand up for them. I don’t recall too many people giving us plaudits for some of the performances we put into the national league when we posting big scores in some terrible conditions.”
Aside from the obvious hurt felt by him at comments from his peers and sections of the media, McGuinness wasn’t entirely happy with the manner of his team’s stroll in Breffni Park. The Donegal boss was emphatic his charges’ display against Cavan “would not be good enough to beat Tyrone”.
McGuinness believed Donegal would appeal against Michael Murphy’s straight red card (27th minute) and he felt confident a positive outcome would be forthcoming from such an appeal.
For his part, Cavan joint-manager Terry Hyland said he couldn’t comment fully on the sending off of midfielder Ray Cullivan in the eighth minute when Kevin Cassidy felt the full force of Cullivan’s boot in his upper chest region.
“I didn’t see it too well ’cause he (Cullivan) had his back to me when the incident happened, but from what I could see, it was more of an awkward challenge from Ray than anything else.
“I’m not sure whether both sending-offs had a major influence on the way things panned out after that.
“We showed ourselves to be a bit lightweight and small in certain departments on the field and maybe it was a lot to ask of so many of our under-21 players to get the better of opponents who are so much more experienced.
“It was important, though, to give these up-and-coming young players experience of senior championship football and I’m sure they’ll be better players for having played in the Ulster senior championship this year.
“It’s time for us to regroup now and stick with this bunch of players for the all-Ireland qualifiers. I’m sure, collectively, we’ll show that we can compete on equal terms with whoever we get in the draw (Cavan drew Longford).”
