Murphy plots Donegal's comeback after Clones collapse

Donegal captain Michael Murphy is determined to get his side back on the rails in the All-Ireland SFC qualifiers this weekend following their shock Ulster final defeat to Monaghan.

It was not just the result but the lacklustre nature of Donegal's performance in Clones which has fans and pundits alike wondering whether Jim McGuinness' men have it in them to defend their All-Ireland title.

It will be a real test of character and the hunger within this squad when they head to Carrick-on-Shannon for Saturday's crunch fourth round qualifier against Laois, knowing that another loss would see them lose two trophies in the space of six days.

Murphy, who was held scoreless in the 0-13 to 0-7 Ulster final reversal, said: "It's a human trait that when something goes wrong, you want to come back at it and do it right. There's no point in sitting around licking the wounds at the business end of the season feeling sorry for yourself.

"It's do or die (this Saturday) – if you lose, you're out. It'll be huge to get over the line. We'll try to put right the wrongs and move forward.

"We will regroup like we regroup after any other game. We'll try and put right the wrongs and get going again. We need to just roll into Carrick-on-Shannon and put on a performance.

"Laois will come in well prepared on the back of a couple of results. They've a bit of momentum. We've been down that route before. If you can win a few games, then you can end up somewhere you mightn't have expected."

A long list of provincial runners-up have been thwarted by the dreaded six-day turnaround at this stage of the All-Ireland qualifiers. Indeed, since the qualifiers were introduced in 2001, only one team - Down last year - has won a qualifier just six days after losing their provincial final.

The Mourne men, 11 points losers to Donegal in the 2012 Ulster decider, recovered to beat Tipperary in the last round of the qualifiers. Donegal's own rebuilding mission began on Monday night with a squad meeting in Letterkenny's Mount Errigal Hotel.

"Bluntly, we let ourselves down. Monaghan outperformed us, both defensively and attacking-wise," admitted Murphy of last Sunday's game, the result of which marked manager McGuinness' first provincial defeat since he was appointed in July 2010.

"It's as simple and straight as in any game – they conceded less and defended comfortably. They scored more and put in a lot more going forward. They outplayed us in every facet of our game.

"If you lose a final it's not nice. People might have thought we were down in the dumps but it (the meeting) was as positive as it could have been. Everybody was there, there's a collective positivity. People are mad to get it right."

While Monaghan looked energised and full of running right from the off in Clones, Donegal lacked pace and looked slightly jaded and heavy-legged at times - particularly in the half-back line where the Farney men built a decent platform for scores.

But suggestions that Donegal might have over-trained in the build-up to the Ulster final - TV pundit Joe Brolly made mention of a particularly hard Tuesday training session on 'The Sunday Game' - were thoroughly dismissed by their powerful full-forward.

“It was just an ordinary Tuesday night session that we've always done. When you get beat people make up things and say you didn't do this or you didn't do that.

"We trained hard. Any time we come we train hard, we train collectively and we train good. We have gone through everything preparation wise, the exact same way we prepared for every other game.

“We didn't perform. Monaghan performed and won an Ulster Championship. Champions, deal with it, move on and let's get on the bandwagon. Let's get at it again and put the best foot forward for Donegal.

"People maybe put two and two together, fair assumption fair enough point, but, nah, everything, the legs felt good, mentally we felt we were in a good place. We just didn't perform on Sunday."

Losing play-making half-forward Mark McHugh to concussion and a dead leg in the first half certainly did not help, and the chances of him lining out against Laois this weekend appear slim.

Murphy admitted: "Mark is a fantastic player. He's a key part of the team and the players (David Walsh and Ryan McHugh) who came in the last day did very well and made an impact.

"But the same way you lose Mark, if you lose any other player in the team, it's not ideal. He has suffered since but hopefully he'll be out (of hospital) by the end of the week and we'll see how things go - but I think he'll be touch and go.

"It's something we will have to deal with if he's out, there's no point sulking. Someone will come in and take the place. Fingers crossed, he may be back."