Of the three televised games this weekend, the most difficult match to officiate was the Donegal v Derry Ulster semi-final in Clones.

Talk is cheap. It’s the actions that follow from teams that determine whether they really believe or whether they were trotting out a party line — and in some cases trying to convince themselves.

Donegal 1-9 Derry 0-10: If it was hardly intriguing, it was tight. Mercifully. Because in truth, Saturday’s Ulster SFC semi final in Clones had little else going for it as a spectacle.

Michael Murphy mightn’t have been happy with the performance but he was at least content in the knowledge last Saturday has dispelled some of the perceptions that Donegal were going to stroll to another Ulster championship.

The night they returned to Donegal Town having reclaimed the Anglo-Celt Cup last July, Eamon McGee was content on the peripheries.

It was only after Donegal beat Armagh a fortnight ago that we realised the men of Tír Chonaill had never before beaten both Tyrone and the Orchard county in the same championship.

Like many from his hometown of Killybegs, Hugh McFadden was often hop-scotching between soccer and Gaelic games.

Rory Gallagher brought an end to the Jim McGuinness era when masterminding Donegal’s nine-point hammering of Armagh in the Ulster quarter-final, according to Brendan Devenney.

Former Derry All-Star footballer Paddy Bradley has lashed out at manager Brian McIver ahead of the county’s crucial Ulster championship semi-final against Donegal on Saturday.

Monaghan 1-20 Fermanagh 0-13: Monaghan took a long time to get going on the longest day of the year, but eventually made the most of Ryan McCluskey’s straight red card to book their place in the Ulster final.

Fear of losing has been replaced by air of expectation in Fermanagh, and Dom Corrigan says it makes a refreshing change.

David Coldrick will have been pleasantly surprised by the sporting nature of his Ulster Championship game at the Athletic Grounds and to see Donegal playing down the clock from the 60th minute.

Armagh 0-8 Donegal 2-11: There was a time when it was Donegal who were the hopeless romantics and Armagh the dealers in dashed dreams, but those roles have long been reversed and never more so than yesterday afternoon in this lopsided Ulster quarter-final.

It’s two weeks since Kieran McGeeney suggested that Donegal were not as physical a side as Dublin or Kerry and, though it seemed like an odd observation at the time, it was one that bore more than a grain of truth yesterday.

The hard work was completed in the week prior to this match. Irrespective of how the game went, Armagh were looking for a win-win.

The lid was flipped. The usually unruffled Brian McEniff had blown his right off.

Donegal defender Eamonn Doherty is on the verge of transforming domestic success with his club side St Eunan’s of Letterkenny into championship appearances for his native county.

They stumbled in Croke Park last year with the winning post in sight, and Ciarán McKeever hopes to see Armagh unveil a new ruthless streak against Donegal on Sunday.

Down manager Jim McCorry has questioned the level of training given to umpires in the wake of Conall McGovern’s controversial dismissal in Sunday’s Ulster SFC defeat by Derry.

Kieran McGeeney is concerned Armagh have picked up “bad habits” in Division Three which could be exposed by Donegal in Sunday’s big Ulster SFC clash.

Derry 0-12 Down 0-11: When a team hasn’t won in a while, it can forget how to, and in the second half at Celtic Park yesterday, Derry were certainly struggling with the concept of victory.

In recent years, lots of people, including myself, have been looking for linesmen and umpires to get more involved in assisting referees with making disciplinary calls.

Monaghan. March 3, 2012. A turning point in Chrissy McKaigue’s career.

Fermanagh 1-13 Antrim 0-08: They struggled with the favourites tag, but Fermanagh finally got to grips with their nerves and kicked 1-3 in the dying minutes to get past 14-man Antrim yesterday.

In an era where GAA players are expected to live like professionals and have the diet of elite athletes, Tony Scullion’s attitude is a throwback to a forgotten time.

It wasn’t all that long ago that Gaelic football was told to contact its solicitor, get its affairs in order. 

1. Limerick’s scoring rate needs improving

It was bound to happen. Just as all good things must come to an end, so too must the bad ones and so it was that Brendan Fitzpatrick on March 28 ended a barren goal streak in the league for Cavan that stretched back to last spring.

Malachy O’Rourke has called for greater consistency from match officials and wants to see weaker teams treated the same as those competing in an All-Ireland final.

Cavan chairman Gerry Brady has revealed their senior football management will speak to players about avoiding verbals ahead of Sunday’s Ulster quarter-final derby with Monaghan.

Spent five days in Donegal last week. Ahead of covering their clash with Tyrone in Ballybofey, it was an opportune time to take in the so-called Forgotten County although it’s Donegal’s understanding of what a kilometre is that’s just as much in need of refreshing.

Justin McMahon insists that Tyrone have plenty of positives to take into the All-Ireland qualifier series.

"I am accustomed myself to not taking it personally and have sort of laughed it off through the years. But yeah, there will be players that can’t do that."

Donegal had the half-time ‘right of way’ in Ballybofey, confirms the Ulster Council, who expect to hear from the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) about Sunday’s interval fracas.

Thank God for the Ulster Championship! High intensity warfare packed with so many off-the-ball incidents that no amount of cameramen, never mind referees and officials, could possibly identify the culprits.

Rule 5.14 of the playing rules of Gaelic football states that to use threatening or provocative language against an opponent is an immediate black card offence.

Well, did anyone expect anything else?

Mickey Harte says there should be no reprecurssions from the half-time row that involved players from both teams and his selector Gavin Devlin.

Donegal 1-13 Tyrone 1-10: It wasn’t fitting that Donegal won nor was it that Tyrone lost. But there was no denying the appropriateness of Michael Murphy scoring the last three points of the game after enduring a dog of an afternoon.

Michael Murphy admits the Donegal panel have been working on their tackling drills ahead of the Ulster SFC preliminary round tie with Tyrone in Ballybofey on Sunday.