in reality the game was closer than it should have been, Armagh had a couple of purple patches alright but I really felt we were much much better than them on the day. the Armagh people around me were very unhappy with the level of their performance as well.
I am very impressed with the young players, you can see their inexperience at times losing possession by just getting too close to the defender and being swallowed up, but what I have really liked about McCahill, Malone and Turlough Carr is that they back themselves with the ball. They take on their man and take on shots when it's on. There isn't that fear or obsession with recycling the ball if they have a step. Now at key moments yesterday they had misses but taking the shot on was the right option in my opinion, they just didn't execute the shot well. But I could watch McCahill's point in the first half all day, what a dummy!
Jason McGee looks in the best shape of his career I just pray that he can stay fit for the full year, he is so important for us especially if the kickout is under pressure, to have him, Hughie, Langan as options is just brilliant to fall back on. And what else can you say about Finbarr Roarty, he is just another level to anything I have seen for a long time, probably the best we've seen since Lacey in terms of tackling?
Hopefully Moore and O'Donnell are ok, Moore I thought it looked like an ankle roll or something, I was a bit more worried looking at Shane coming off he didn't look happy at all, like something was wrong. The good thing now is that Div1 status is secured and there is no need to rush anyone back too early, injuries can be minded well now.
Another very satisfying result yesterday. It was probably a wee bit more nervy that it needed to be. We were clearly the better team and deserved the points.
Jason McGee had a powerful game. Great to see. Armagh badly missed the ball winning ability of Andrew Murnin I thought, and Jason was able to exploit his absence fully. Roarty is phenomenal, he just keeps getting better and better. I think Conor O'Donnell is really a top tier player now as well. Interesting to see him operating at CHF. He is very explosive and hard to stop when he gets into a gallop. Gavin Mulreanny deserves special mention too. Another game where he was instrumental with his point scoring and shot stopping.
It's good now that we can safely experiment. Shane O'Donnell looks like he might miss a few games, hopefully not too serious. He reminds me a wee bti of Xavi from Barcelona. Just a very intelligent player, hard to pin him down, and constantly probing for weakness in the opposition rearguard.
At this stage I think we should go and try to reach the League final. Another win would probably do it?
A great result for Donegal yesterday. Thoroughly deserved by the lads. Was disappointed with the penalty decision, 2 reasons , firstly I didn't think it was a foul, was mcgonagle supposed to jump out of burns way and secondly the initial contact if it was a foul was outside the penalty area. Justice was served in the end.
Roarty, mcgee, mchugh, langan, ban really drove donegal on and conor o donnell had a good second half too. Mccahill with a brilliant dummy to send his man to the shop scored a sublime point, got caught a couple of times taking ball into contact but that will be great experience for him in another promising display. Gavin Mulreany giving Jim food for thought too with another hood displa
Given the injury list is growing and we have secured our division one status we will be forced to make a good few changes for next week. Here's a shot at our starting XV against Galway next week
I think the priority now should be giving the squad a run out and seeing how they do against top opposition, we have that luxury now of being secure in div 1, if we end up in the league final well and good, I'm not worried about it either way, the main thing is getting game time into players that might be needed for Championship and they can make their case now in the league for selection. We had that game well won on Sunday but we dropped the intensity in the 2nd half again, we are going well but there is lots to work on, to beat the likes of Kerry in Championship we'll need to be going full pace for the 70 mins. Mulreany is giving Jim a goalkeeping headache now, I think Patton still gets the nod for his kickouts but it's close.
I hinted at it in a post last week, but do you get the impression that all isn't well in the Tyrone camp? Darragh Canavan heading away for a month at this time of year is strange. They also suffered a bad defeat at the weekend. Enda McGinley wrote off their promotion hopes on the highlights show last night.