Allianz Football League: Jim McGuinness 'happy' as Donegal romp to win over Cork
- Published
Jim McGuinness had league debuts to four Donegal players at MacCumhaill Park
Jim McGuinness says Donegal responded "very, very well" to early pressure from Cork as they clinched a 1-20 to 2-6 win in the Allianz Football League Division Two opener at Ballybofey.
Playing against a strong breeze, Eoghan McSweeney's 16th-minute Cork goal cut Donegal's lead to only a point.
Donegal's 0-12 to 1-6 half-time lead still looked potentially precarious but they dominated the second period.
"We're happy with the performance," said the Donegal manager.
"We were asked a lot of questions in the first half and in fairness at half-time, they responded very, very well."
Cork's second-half prospects weren't helped by the wind noticeably dropping after the resumption although the final 11-point margin left no argument about Donegal's superiority as the ultimately outclassed John Cleary's side - racking up a huge score for this time of year.
McGuinness gave league debuts to goalkeeper Gavin Mulreany, Kevin McGettigan, Ciaran Moore and Oisin Caulfield and while Naomh Conaill man McGettigan was forced after 21 minutes by a knock as experienced Eoghan Ban Gallagher came on, the other newcomers performed well.
Gallen a late withdrawal from Donegal team
The Donegal boss has had little option but to look for new inter-county players with the likes of Jason McGee, Michael Langan, Hugh McFadden, Conor O'Donnell and Caolan McColgan all currently out of action because of injury, although expected to return in due course.
Donegal's star forward Oisin Gallen was also a late withdrawal because of an unspecified knock although McGuinness suggested that the ailment wasn't a major cause for concern.
"We could have possibly chanced him but we thought with the way things are now and the season so condensed, if you risk somebody and they go in and it's three or four weeks, it can be a really big chunk of time.
"So we decided to hold him back and see if we could do it without him and we were able to thankfully.
"It's a challenge and it means that you have to work really hard to develop a squad and today younger lads stepped in and stepped up which was great in Oisin's absence."
Ryan McHugh said Donegal "played exceptionally" in the second half
After missing last season because of injury, relative old hand Ryan McHugh showed his continuing value to Donegal football by producing a fine display which included kicking a point, although his Kilcar club-mate and team captain Patrick McBrearty was the scorer-in-chief as he fired 1-6.
"I thought we played exceptionally in the second half," admitted McHugh.
"We upped the levels of intensity. Got a lot of tackles in, turned them over and got an unbelievable score.
"Football's funny nowadays. Sometimes teams play better against the breeze.
"We saw that last week with Derry [in the Dr McKenna Cup Final]. We thought we in a good position two points down having played against a gale and Derry gave us a lesson in how to play against the breeze.
"We didn't panic at half-time. We knew if we put in the game plan that Jim and the boys sent out, that we'd definitely give ourselves a few chances."
McHugh hailed McBrearty's leadership of the current Donegal squad.
"Paddy is the leader of the team now and he's really setting the tone. Every night at training.
"It's off the pitch where people set the difference and Paddy is really leading this Donegal team."