RYAN McHugh shrugs off the personal stuff.
“You won the kick-out for the goal you scored,” points out a journalist after Donegal had nicked it against Meath in Navan last Saturday evening.
“Och, I don’t know if I did,” replies McHugh, deflecting attention.
Of course, he did win it. He’s far from a giant, but sheer determination saw McHugh out-jump his marker and then, with the ball in his hands, he took off on one of those trademark driving runs through the Meath defence.
He passed but kept on running, hoping for a return and when it came he palmed the ball over the line and ended up in the back of the Royal’s net.
Meath immediately replied with a goal of their own but Donegal – with McHugh, Michael Murphy and Paddy McBrearty outstanding in the closing stages – got out of town with a one-point victory. In the Qualifiers, one point more is always enough.
“I suppose what we wanted out of the game, first and foremost, was to be in the next round,” said the Kilcar clubman after the Pairc Tailteann thriller.
“We’ve done that. In any game, there will be things you’ll be happy with and things you’re not too happy with. We’ll sit down again now and look back at this.
“Donegal, for a few years now, haven’t been used to playing in the Qualifiers and haven’t been used to the week-in, week-out games so it’s something we’re getting used to and we’re starting to enjoy it.
“Ulster didn’t go the way we wanted. We know we’ve a lot of work to do to get back up to the level we want to be. But I think we’re getting there slowly but surely. We’ll have to step it up a level again in the next round. We’re looking forward to that challenge.”
The next challenge for Donegal is a round 4A Qualifier against beaten Connacht finalists Galway at Markievicz Park on July 22. After rebounding from the disappointment of losing heavily to Tyrone in the Ulster semi-final, Donegal will go into that game with renewed confidence
Paddy McBrearty sealed the win with an injury-time point while defender Paddy McGrath played a less glamourous, but equally important role, by limiting the input of Meath skipper Graham Reilly to just a point on Saturday.
“There was a big step up and a big improvement from our performance from last week (against Longford),” said McGrath.
“It was a good, hard game - a good Championship game and I'm sure the crowd enjoyed it. I'm very pleased with how the boys reacted.
“The atmosphere was very good. It was scandalous that we conceded a goal right after getting a goal and that gave Meath a ticket right back into the game.
“The goal had just given us a wee bit of breathing space but conceding shouldn't have happened. We're just going to have to take the learning from that to the next game.”
He added: “The character of the young fellas, to keep up that pace, especially in that heat… The boys that came off the bench today again did the business and we needed that at that time. They raised the performance levels as well.
“Credit to Patrick, what a great score. Fair play to him for putting it over the bar, he took it on and got his rewards and it's good we have those options up front. Credit to them up front, because it's not easy for inside-forwards nowadays.
“Getting back to winning ways is what we wanted. That's two good results after a bad defeat. We're going to try and build on that in the next couple of weeks before we prepare and get the legs right.
