McGuinness playing catch-up

Jim McGuinness is working on the assumption that he will have to do without a number of his All-Ireland winners for a second successive week when they welcome Down to Ballybofey in five days’ time.

Neil Gallagher, who played a key role from midfield last September, sat out the defeat by Kildare two days ago, as did Christy Toye and David Walsh who contributed off the bench against Mayo.

Defender Frank McGlynn, a late omission from the team that played in Croke Park last weekend, may well make an appearance although it remains to be seen how serious the hamstring injury suffered by Colm McFadden proves to be and Karl Lacey is unavailable long-term.

McGuinness was still able to field a first 15 that contained 11 of the men who lined up for the 2012 pre All-Ireland final parade but their late return to training and a break in Dubai clearly counted against them when faced with the Leinster side.

“First half we weren’t our normal selves and we maybe weren’t at the intensity level that we play at and that is understandable given we were probably four or five weeks behind Kildare for the start of the National League,” said McGuinness.

“I would be very happy with the second half in terms of our ability to dig in. We were down a lot of players ... A few young lads came in and done well. Ross Wherrity showed well inside so it was a good gritty performance in the second-half.

“We made a lot of mistakes which you would expect at this time of year, but the positives would be that they got up to the level of the game for a good part of the second-half.”