Donegal manager: 'We know we have to improve in certain areas'

By Alan Foley

Declan Bonner, the Donegal manager, admitted that although he was content enough with Sunday's Ulster SFC preliminary round win over Cavan at Ballybofey, it wasn’t usual fare in the northern province.

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“It’s probably not similar to an Ulster Championship match but, in fairness to Cavan, they came to play football,” the Donegal manager said afterwards.

“Yeah we had opportunities, no doubt about it. We maybe created four or five goal chances, we took two. On another day, in a tighter match, you’re going to have to take those chances and that’s another area we’re going to have to work on.

“But listen, we’re pleased to get over the line today and it’s nice to start the Championship with a victory here in Mac Cumhaill Park.

It was a real game, an open game. Listen, there’s going to be tougher tests ahead and we know that, and we know we have to improve in certain areas and we’ll go back and we will work on that.

Although disappointed with the result, Cavan manager Mattie McGleenan hasn’t thrown in his towel for the summer and will now focus on the qualifiers.

He said: “Donegal are moving very well there. They could take a bit of shifting. I would be happy we didn't give up and played to the final whistle there. It is a huge learning curve. This is one of the top teams in Ulster Championship football, they are not one of the top teams by chance.

“We will take a lot of learnings from this and go back to the drawing tackle. The big thing in this point in time is this time last year we went into the back door, our performances dropped off. That can't happen now. It will be a huge test of this football team, can we take the learning of today and go into the back door and that our season isn't finished.”