IN THE dank press room under the Hogan Stand on Saturday evening, Donegal manager Rory Gallagher described his side’s 10-point win over Galway as “ideal preparation” for another All-Ireland quarter-final showdown with Mayo.
There was no talk of revenge in the immediate aftermath of their Qualifier victory over the Tribes men. In 2013, Mayo pulverised Donegal 4-17 to 1-10 at the last eight stage. It was the lowest point of Jim McGuinness’ tenure as Donegal manager.
After dismissing Galway at Croke Park on Saturday, Gallagher admitted Donegal were “very poor” for a chunk of the opening half, but was hugely encouraged by their second half display that yielded a game-winning 2-8. The former Fermanagh player paid glowing tributes to man-of-the-match Colm McFadden and explained why he’d resisted the temptation of playing Michael Murphy at full-forward during Donegal’s Ulster campaign.
On Saturday evening, Murphy played most of the game on the edge of the square. The Glenswilly attacker scored a wonderful point in the 48th minute and set up Ryan McHugh for Donegal’s killer second goal.
“Michael is exceptional,” said Gallagher.
“When you get out of Ulster, you might see him there a bit more. It’s not easy in Ulster when there are five or six men round the ‘D’ because that’s the way Ulster teams play. To be honest, it was part of the plan to play him out the field in Ulster because he’s going to get more touches. [In Ulster] he gets very minimal touches inside.”
After missing several chances in Donegal’s Ulster final defeat to Monaghan, McFadden returned to his best form on Saturday evening in a more withdrawn attacking role.
“I thought Colm was excellent,” said Gallagher.
“I think he was involved in all three goals and he looked really powerful. Even in the Ulster final, I thought he played really well; it was just his shots didn’t come off.”
It took the 2012 All-Ireland champions a while to shake off Galway but, when they did, they were ruthless, scoring two goals in the final 10 minutes.
“I thought it was like the Ulster final,” Gallagher added.
“We had a good start to the game, we were 1-2 or 1-3 up early on and we looked fairly dangerous. Then we kind of lost a bit of momentum in the middle of the field and Galway had our number for a wee while. It was very poor in the last 15 or 18 minutes [of the first half], we didn’t look like breaking Galway down. But we regrouped in the second half and upped the ante.
“I suppose there’s an inevitable period of mourning when you lose a provincial final – one we very much wanted to win – but we’re over that now, and it’s all to play for next Saturday evening. We played very, very well in the second half and it was ideal preparation to get a good game like that.”
Meanwhile, Galway boss Kevin Walsh rued a couple of missed opportunities soon after half-time.
“We missed two chances after half-time when we had them on the rack,” said the former Tribe star.
“In the middle of the field, we couldn’t get our hands on the breaks. They got their second goal and it’s very hard to pull back on a good team. We were fighting for that game when it mattered… I suppose, for the last few minutes, we left ourselves exposed trying to get the game back.
“Maybe there are certain teams out there that would stick to defence all day and be happy to lose by three or four points. But that’s not in this team. We went out to try and win that game. We felt we were going to win the game.”
Reflecting briefly on this Saturday’s clash between Donegal and Mayo, Walsh added: “I would say Donegal are more defensive than what Mayo are. Mayo try to turn the ball over high up the field more than Donegal do. It’s probably hard to say. They are two totally different teams.”