GAELIC GAMES:JIM McGUINNESS found himself in the slightly unusual position here of having to praise the skill and intelligence of the opposition before eventually conceding that his team deserved to win.

It was that sort of day in Clones, Tyrone doing everything they could to unsettle Donegal, but Donegal eventually unsettling them – and ending the defence of their Ulster football title.

“Well we certainly can’t complain about winning,” said McGuinness, “but I’d be very disappointed with a lot of our play, and certainly the lack of composure in the first half.

“Tyrone got the run at us, and it was vintage Tyrone as well, the way they took they game to us, stretched the play all the time, used the ball intelligently, and asked the questions of our defenders. So they really were exceptional, so to go into the break just two points down really was a bonus. We were doing all the opposite to Tyrone.

“It was important just to get back to our tactics, and forget about Tyrone, and the place in the final. When we finally did that we got the bit of joy in the second half. We started to get some longer ball into the forwards, and found some better shape and composure. And more than anything better belief. The goal was always going to make a huge difference, and thankfully Colm McFadden and Dermot Molloy showed great composure in the way they finished, and that’s what got us through. It wasn’t a great game, but it was a real pressure cooker, and hopefully getting the result the way we did will stand to us going into the Ulster final.”

Mickey Harte had the look of a man both dazed by Donegal’s late goal, and disappointed his team had ever allowed themselves to become so vulnerable.

“We lost the game in the first half,” he said. “Never mind the goal chances. The scoring statistics say we had 18 scoring chances and got six. Donegal had five scoring chances and got four. You don’t need any other statistics than that. That is the story of the game in a nutshell. They were much more economical with the chances that they created.

“The sending off didn’t help us but we would have done well to have got a draw. They got their second goal which was maybe inevitable when you are throwing caution to the wind trying to get that winning score. That can happen and it happened today and we have to live with it.”

Losing big Joe McMahon was, agreed Harte, a telling blow.

“He was very competent and playing with supreme confidence. It was concussion. He probably did it to himself. How you can concuss someone and still stay on the field, I don’t know? . . .

“But we weren’t as confident going forward in the second half. Donegal got to grips with the way we were playing . . . They absorbed what we had to throw at them in the first half, they were still there within touching distance and they built on that. They are in the final on merit.”