Kernan salute as charges refuse to throw in towel

JOE KERNAN heaved a deep sigh of relief at the final whistle.

For much of the second-half, it looked like his team were going to lose their grip on the Ulster championship. In the end, it was down to the veterans, the likes of Paul McGrane and Oisin McConville to rescue them.

“Well, our boys came back in fairness. They could have thrown the towel in, especially when Donegal were three points ahead. They didn’t and that shows character. We live to fight another day and we will see what happens next week. The boys showed character. I know we didn’t use the extra man sensibly, but it can be very hard to use an extra man in football. What I am most impressed with is how the lads responded when Donegal looked like they were pulling away. Lesser teams would have folded. We didn’t. That shows the qualities that is still in these boys.”

Philip Loughran’s appearance was a telling factor. In the final 10 minutes, he won the possession Armagh had been unable to win for most of the game.

“We were struggling in the middle, but it is great to have a player like Phily to come in and dominate the way we did. Look, we are relieved to still be here, and we won’t mind the three games in a row if we win next week. It is better than planning a trip to Tipperary.”

Brian McEniff stands on the side of the Clones pitch, reflecting how his Donegal side almost engineered a victory against all the odds. Again.

Typical of them really, they came to Clones with nobody giving them much of a chance and then saw their inspirational force Kevin Cassidy dismissed before half an hour.

And yet almost won. McEniff was a little disappointed, but his team have not measured themselves against Armagh, and have little to fear next weekend. “Lads worked hard in the second half, against a strong Armagh side,” he said.

Donegal squandered a couple of opportunities to finally rid themselves of this Armagh jinx, particularly near the end. “Yeah, we had opportunities to win this game, even with that last free kick, it was unfortunate that it was very close to the side-line. But I can’t fault anyone’s effort in the second half. At half time, we had our own problems. We would talk about how we would prepare and play the second half. The players did what I asked in the second half and that was reflected in the effort they made.”

As expected, he was keeping tight-lipped about Cassidy’s dismissal. Instead, he thought back to the chances his side squandered when they were three points up in the final 15 minutes.

“At that stage, I thought we could have poached another couple of points, but we didn’t and in the heel of the hunt, Armagh came back. Another game will bring us on.”