Malachy O'Rourke refused to blame some contentious refereeing decisions for Monaghan's defeat to Donegal.

The Farneymen should have been awarded a first half penalty when Donegal 'keeper Paul Durcan effected a foot-block on Fintan Kelly, but their manager wasn't making any excuses.

"I thought there were a few things in their favour, even with the free count in the first half (9-6)," he reflected.

"At the same time, we are not making excuses, we had our chances, especially when we got the goal we had chances to drive on but we weren't able to.

"We missed a couple of frees that would have given us that lead we had last year. That's the way football works sometimes. We kept plugging away.

"But just overall, I don't think we played well enough on the day to win the game and we just hold up our hands and have to accept that and move from this."

O'Rourke expressed the hope that Monaghan would be able to beat Kildare in a fortnight's time and get back into an All-Ireland quarter-final.

"It didn't happen for us today, but you just don't forget about the year and forget about the work you have already done. So we will regroup and try and move forward and put our best foot forward in it." Tweet

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