PADDY McBrearty cut a dejected figure at the back of the Gerry Arthur stand in Clones.
One of the last out of the Donegal dressing room, McBrearty spoke about his last-minute attempt at a point as Donegal trailed by the minimum.
Donegal fans behind the goals were cheering wildly as the ball took flight but the umpires waved it wide with McBrearty confirming his effort sailed agonisingly past the post.
“I thought it was over and it was looking like it was going over but it just tailed at the last second. One of those ones you might not relish looking at.”
McBrearty, however, was one of the main reasons Donegal got to within a single point of Monaghan, having been five down on a few occasions.
The Kilcar man - on target both from play and from placed-balls - was hungry for possession throughout.
Ultimately, it was a wide tally of 16 that will be most talked about as the embers of this Ulster final are picked over.
“We hit a lot of wides today and you really can't afford to be doing that. “Monaghan put a lot of pressure on us and you can't afford to allow a team like Monaghan, who are a top side, get too far ahead of you. I wish them all the best and hopefully we might meet them later on the year.”
There was an element of what might have been for McBrearty however, given the wide count that the team managed to rack up.
“I'm not saying Monaghan didn't deserve to win it or I'm not saying they were not the better team, but with the number of wides we had there today we think we could have had something out of that game.”
McBrearty and Donegal now head into a 4th round qualifier game with Galway this weekend.
“I think we have Galway and we just have to get back down to business on Tuesday and Thursday this week.
"We'll have a look at the video and see what we need to do and and get ourselves ready for that one,” the three time Ulster medallist explained.
While the result disappointed the Kilcar man, McBrearty believes the Donegal squad can take positives from their performance during the last quarter of the game.
“I think the last 15 or 20 minutes today, apart from the shooting obviously, was the best we have played all year so we have that to take from today.”
In that time Donegal looked good going forward and cut through the Monaghan defence on a few occasions but they never threatened a goal and importantly to their frustration their shooting for points was still wayward on occasion.
McBrearty did reveal that a knee injury reported in the lead up to the game was nothing that curtailed his involvement although it did hamper his preparation.
“I wasn't really able to train and that was frustrating and there are times that you feel it but nothing serious at all.”
