DONEGAL forward Ciaran Thompson saw plenty of room for improvement following a jittery victory over a battling Louth side in Ballyshannon on Sunday.
It took a somewhat scrappy goal from the hosts to set them on the path to victory on a 1-17 to 0-15 scoreline which keeps the visitors in the relegation zone, while the Tír Chonaill men are locked on nine points with Armagh at the top of Division Two and well on course for promotion.
“We should have been a bit more composed and we were probably a bit frantic when he had the wind in the opening half and thought we had to be five or six points up but we really should have been more measured,” Thompson said.
“We are in a good position now to get promotion and get to the Division Two final and have a little break for the next two weeks.”
But Thompson was less than happy with the overall display on a day when Louth asked the home side quite a lot of questions.
The game was delicately poised with Donegal leading 0-8 to 0-6 when Hugh McFadden profited from a Louth slip and fed Jeaic Mac Ceallbhui for a goal and suddenly Donegal were five points up.
Louth full-back Dermot Campbell, whose slip allowed McFadden in, later claimed he threw the ball to Mac Ceallbhui.
“Louth only lost their last few games by a point, so we knew they were going to bring a very big challenge,” said Glenties man Thompson.
“We knew they would throw everything at us and that is exactly what they did.
“We were not happy with that first-half display and I thought we were a bit sloppy on the ball and were running into tackles and they were killing us on the counter-attacks.
“But I thought we were much more together in the second half when we got the scores that gave us the victory that we needed.”
Louth had been on Donegal’s back for the entire game until Mac Ceallbhui’s scrambled goal gave Tír Chonaill the momentum to push on for victory.
“It was a huge score for us, and Hugh McFadden was a real handful in there at full-forward, so he did well to win and lay off the ball and the goal was badly needed,” said Thompson.
“That gave us a good cushion and we kicked on and managed to keep the ball and worked our scores from there on.”
Donegal’s next match is a trip to Netwatch Cullen Park to take on bottom side Kildare on Saturday, March 16.