McGuinness: No puke football against Cavan

DONEGAL boss Jim McGuinness has defended his side’s performance against Antrim ahead of Sunday’s Ulster SFC quarter-final with Cavan, claiming the criticism levelled at his players was “way over the top.”

Donegal overcame Antrim by 1-10 to 0-7 in Ballybofey on May 15th but received little praise for their display.

McGuinness admitted: “It may not have been pretty or pleased the supporters but the important thing is that we got the result. If the same happens on Sunday — and I think it won’t — we will still be happy as long as we get the same result because after all, that is what it is all about.

“After the league final we gave the players a week off which effectively gave us two weeks to get ready for Antrim.

“It also meant that basically we relied on the fitness built up in the league to get us over the Antrim hurdle and it was only since that game that we have got down to proper championship training.”

Despite justifying the style of play against Antrim, McGuinness was quick to assure Donegal supporters to expect a different display against Cavan.

“Cavan will be completely different to Antrim. We will play a different style. Antrim came to Ballybofey and were ultra defensive and double-marked Colm McFadden and Michael Murphy, which meant that when we went long early, their sweepers gobbled up possession. This in turn forced us to adopt a different approach.

“We went to Derry and scored 2-18 and kicked 1-17 against Antrim and 16 points against Meath and were ultra offensive in those games,” McGuinness added. “We knew Antrim were going to be defensive and we had to deal with that. But that game is behind us and Cavan provide a new challenge and it will be a completely different game.”