GOAL hero Martin O’Reilly is justifying his inclusion in Rory Gallagher’s full-forward line, but insists Donegal’s collective performance must improve for the Ulster final against Monaghan on July 19.
O’Reilly followed up his goal scoring performance against Armagh by raising another green flag in Saturday night’s semi-final clash with Derry at Clones. The 45th minute goal put five points between the sides and, although they failed to reach the same levels of a fortnight ago, the Tír Cohnaill men hung on to reach their fifth consecutive provincial final.
“At the end of the day, we wanted to get over the line no matter what it took,” he said.
“A lot of people were writing Derry off before the game because of our Armagh performance and that was a crazy, crazy thing to do. We knew that nothing short of our best effort would be enough to reach an Ulster final.
“We had to put the shoulder to the wheel. It was very, very tough, but thankfully we’re into the final. It was cagey right until the very end. It was nip and tuck up and down the pitch and we had to work hard to get over the line.
“We are going to have to work hard and, again, nothing short of our best will be good enough to beat Monaghan. We know we have a lot of work to do and we have to get back to the drawing board.
“Rory will have a plan in place. Monaghan are a fantastic team and we will have to go out and give it our best shot.”
O’Reilly’s goal came at a decisive time for Donegal on Saturday evening and the Ballybofey man admits he is surprised at his form in front of the net.
“It was more luck than anything," O'Reilly said.
"Big Neil Gallagher played me in and my first touch took it around the keeper and, thankfully, I put it in the net. It was very similar to the other goal [against Armagh]. On another day, you could drop the ball or something so I’m glad it hit the net.
“I don’t get too many goals with the club, so you take them when they come. As I said, I was very grateful to see it go in.”
