Jim McGuinness Distances Himself And Players From Donegal Statement Criticising GAA

Jim McGuinness said that neither he nor his player had anything to do with the statement released during the week from the Donegal GAA whicch criticised the fixture time for today's All-Ireland quarterfinal against Monaghan.

Donegal were given a six day turnaround from their win over Louth last Sunday by the GAA. Donegal GAA released a statement on Monday evening criticising the decision. However after Donegal dismantled Monaghan today, McGuinness was keen to stress he had nothing to do with that statement.

"There was a statement put out during the week, the management and the players had nothing to do with that statement we didn’t know the statement was going to be put out.

So there’s an awful lot of noise and articles about that statement and that we weren’t happy but the management and the players knew that once we got beat against Tyrone that we were going to be facing into three games in three weeks.

The statement was released by the county board on the back of people and clubs in Donegal not being happy but as a management team we weren't ok with it because from my own point of view, you should never make an excuse for a game before it’s played and I’ve never done that in my life."

He added it would be been 'disrespectful' to Monaghan to have to released such a statement

So much of the build-up to the game was dominated by conjecture around how Donegal would cope with their third game in three weeks.

At halftime of the match, it appeared that Donegal were badly feeling the effects of their 9th game this season.

Donegal came flying out of the traps with two lovely right-footed efforts from Oisin Gallen using a lovely sidestep to evade Ryan O’Toole.

But Monaghan surged into the game, and when Michael Bannigan pounced on a Patton mistake from a short kickout to score the game's first goal, the Farney men were in clear control.

Monaghan's long range shooting was sensational as Andrew Woods, Ryan O’Toole and Bannigan added scores to push them seven clear at the break, they were the much better team played with more energy and looked more hungry than Donegal.

Man of the match Shane O’Donnell said Jim McGuinness didn’t hold back in his half time team talk.

"I think we got a big wake up call in the first half Monaghan came out all guns blazing we went in six points down, Jim was brutally honest he told us a few harsh words that we needed to hear, everything he said we took on board so yeah just delighted"

Donegal came out a different team in the second half, two quick points from Murphy (free) and Conor O’Donnell along with a huge injury blow for Monaghan as Ryan McAnespie had to be withdrawn and suddenly the momentum was with Jim McGuinness’s men.

In the 46th minute Michael Langan played a lovely one=two with Murphy before blasting to the roof of the net, the gap was down to two 1-18 to 1-16.

Enter Paddy Mcbrearty the most decorated footballer in Ulster championship history scored two brilliant points off the bench, Eight points without reply Donegal really turned the screw in the second half.

Donegal have earned a well deserved two=week break before the all-Ireland semi-final in two weeks time. Nobody will want them in Sunday evening's draw.