Jim McGuinness praised Donegal's battling qualities after they beat Armagh yesterday to retain their Division 1 status.

"It definitely wasn't a perfect performance," he admitted.

"There were a lot of mistakes made but we showed a hunger, desire and determination and that is what got us over the line. The normal situation after kicking bad wides is that heads might go down, but this wasn't the situation here. We asked them the question at half-time and their mentality and approach to the second half was brilliant. To be fair they delivered in spades."

McGuinness was especially pleased with how his team coped in the absence of key performers Michael Murphy, Christy Toye and Neil McGee.

"We were without Michael and we lost Christy during the week and then Niel today in the warm-up," he added.

"A lot was made in the media of us being a one-man team (i.e. Michael Murphy) so it was nice to see many boys putting their shoulder to the wheel to get their county over the line." Tweet

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