Christy Toye has insisted that Paul Durcan's mistake wasn't the reason why Donegal lost the All-Ireland final.

Toye jumped to the defence of the Donegal goalkeeper after his mis-placed kick-out gifted Kieran Donaghy a goal in the 52nd minute.

"Listen, people are going to talk about the goal I suppose," said Toye, who came on as a substitute late in the first half.

"But Papa's kick-outs have been outstanding all summer. The amount of scores we would have got straight from kick-outs was unreal.

"He doesn't get enough credit in that regard as he should. As I say, no way in the wide world was it the goal that beat us today. It was 70 minutes and the lack of performance from the team as a whole.

"Papa is probably the best 'keeper in Ireland and he's been brilliant for us all summer. So no way is any blame being attached to that goal or anything like that. We responded well to it after that but, as I say, over the 70 minutes we didn't perform."

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