All-Ireland SFC Qualifying round 3A: Meath v Donegal (Saturday, Pairc Tailteann, Navan, 6pm)
DONEGAL'S limp and lethargic win over lowly Longford has attracted some flak in the county over the past week.
Fingers are being pointed – a tad prematurely – at a youthful team that came into the Championship with so much hope, but who have slumped in the last two meetings with Tyrone and Longford.
Yet one astute and experienced observer insists the team is not in the entertainment business.
1992 All-Ireland winner Manus Boyle reckoned that, despite the disappointing displays against Tyrone and Longford, Donegal are still a “top six team”.
Boyle urged his county to “move the ball much more quickly” and rediscover their kicking skills if they want to have a reasonable summer.
The man who scored 0-9 in that All-Ireland final is not a fan either of Donegal locating the versatile Michael Murphy on the edge of the square following some pretty tepid performances up front.
The Tir Chonaill attack has been stunted over the past few games and they only really pulled clear after Longford lost James McGivney to a second yellow.
When asked about the fixation with performance as opposed to winning, Boyle said: “It depends what your intentions are and, of course, players do their very best to win matches But it is all about winning and we are not in the entertainment business.”
Boyle believes the emphasis on performance does not come from the players, but from fans and certain sections of the media.
“It is about winning and players and teams will do whatever they have to do to achieve that,” he added.
Having said that, he acknowledged that Donegal were “very poor and looked tired against Tyrone”.
“Donegal’s game is around carrying the ball up field, a high energy game but we did not see too much lately and they have been on the go since September so maybe they are getting mentally tired,” he said.
“I thought that Neil McGee and Frank McGlynn were left badly exposed after we pushed up on Tyrone.
“And I am not a fan of the
counter-attack en masse from the defence because it leaves too many gaps at the back.”
Boyle still believes, though, that Rory Gallagher’s men can defeat Meath.
“Of course they can beat Meath as they are still a top six team,” he insisted.
“They can win if they perform to the level we know they are capable of, but they will struggle if they reproduce the same fare as they did against Longford and if Meath are up for it.
“Against Longford we were depending on just a few players to create scores against a Division Three side. But we just did not kick the ball and there was too much hand passing.
“It would have helped if we had even kicked the ball up the wings to gain some ground quickly but that did not happen.”
Boyle added that the game turned on the sending-off of James McGivney.
“That was a harsh decision and if it had happened to Donegal we would have been rightly ripping,” he added.
“And I don’t think the referee had one of his better days. Meath are a big, strong, physical side with nothing to lose and have no expectations and Donegal will be favourites, so we need to deliver.
“If the Meath manager is thinking at all he will have all of that pinned to the dressing room as motivation.”
Boyle does not believe that moving Michael Murphy to the square, even for a short period, would be any form of panacea for Donegal’s issues.
“No, Donegal have been playing to a particular gameplan and I don’t think they would have practised that move enough to be effective,” he said.
“They play a certain way and that’s their game and they are going to stick with it.”
Boyle added that he believes Rory Gallagher’s men must “keep their shape” tonight.
“But they must move the ball much quicker and use the kicked pass, there is too much toe to hand,” he said.
“Donegal have not been getting any goals, something we need to be doing. They’ve not become a bad team overnight and they still have the potential to come through.”
