McGuinness calls for improvement from Donegal

Donegal manager Jimmy McGuinness has called for his players to up their game after a disappointing first outing in this year's Ulster Senior Football Championship.

McGuinness' charges managed to pull through by beating Antrim 1-10 to 0-07 in wet conditions in Ballybofey, with Mark McHugh scoring an injury-time goal.

But the Tir Chonaill men have plenty to work on ahead of their Ulster quarter-final clash with Cavan on Sunday, June 12.

"I wouldn't be happy with our performance to be honest," admitted McGuinness afterwards.

"I know Anto Healy was trying to play a bit of a sweeper in the first half and it made life difficult for us, but I suppose from our perspective the quality of the ball going inside and forcing the ball inside wasn't good.

"I don't know what the wides tally was but I would imagine that it was very close to 20, so there are a lot of things for us to work on."

McGuinness' first Championship match in charge may have turned into a dour battle, but a better collective effort in the second half will give them something to build on.

McHugh finished with 1-01 for the victors, while Michael Murphy (0-03), Colm McFadden (0-02) and Ryan Bradley (0-02) were amongst their other scorers

"It was positive that the lads kept on playing strongly. We made a few changes to the way we wanted to play at half-time, and that allowed us to get a grip in the second half," added McGuinness.

"We took the game to them in the second half and had a bit of joy running at them.

"Overall it is a bit of a disappointment, but during the week I said that we hadn't won at home in three years (in the Championship).

"The key was to win at home and try and get to the next round of the Championship. We have done that and that is a positive that we'll take, more than anything."