McCartan rues missed chances

It may be too late for his team but James McCartan feels Down showed the rest of the country there are chinks in the Donegal armour.

The scoreline doesn’t suggest Down were able to penetrate but they did open Donegal up for a few goal chances which they were unable to take, opting at times for points when a goal was perhaps on.

“They’re going to be very, very difficult to break down and the confidence they have is there for all to see,” said the Down manager.

“But at the same time we showed that there’s chinks in the armour in places and we just didn’t exploit them or take enough chances.

“I suppose whenever you rack up six or seven points and put a gloss on at the end, the perception will be that they were a lot fitter but I wouldn’t buy into that.

“But you have to give them credit. They’ve put back-to-back Ulster championships together and they deserve all the credit in the world.”

Donegal scored 2-16 in the last 40 minutes of the game, a frightening display of scoring power once they sucked the life and the hope out of the 2010 All Ireland runners-up.

McCartan is now faced with trying to lift his team in the dreaded six-day turnaround for a fourth round qualifier against high-flying Tipperary this weekend.

“We’ve a devastated dressing room there.

“The six-day turnaround is well documented, not too many people agree with it and they’ve agreed to change it for next year, but it might come too late for us but we’ve six days to turn it around.

“It’s going to be difficult, but we’ve character in that dressing-room and it’s going to have to come out the next day.”

Jim McGuinness was twice turned down when he went for the Donegal senior manager’s job, but he must feel like it was worth the wait now.

He is the first manager to lead the county to back-to-back Ulster titles and the first manager ever to win the provincial title via the preliminary round two years running.

“I’ve always believed there’s talent in Donegal, in my heart,” he said.

“I used to look at other teams and think ‘we’re as good as them technically, player for player, but we’re not able to do it’. I’m happy for the players that it’s worked out this way.”

No-one will want to draw Donegal in the All-Ireland quarter-finals and after reaching the semi-finals last year, it’s obvious what the target is now.

“You have to believe you can win the All-Ireland – if you didn’t, there’s no point going on in the competition. Just give your place to someone else.

“We can only prepare for the quarter-final. If you don’t win the quarter-final, you can’t win the All-Ireland.”