Donegal happy to ‘get lucky’ amid O’Connor’s fury

“Maybe we got a bit lucky on that but we’ll just have to keep going with it.”

Kerry were five clear in the 30th minute when Muff club-man McColgan, one of the three starting debutants named by Carr, hit the shot in question towards the Kerry goals from some 35 metres.

At first the ball did appear to be going well inside the left-hand post only for it to curl sharply as it neared the upright.

The umpire on the right-hand post immediately reached for his flag but with Kingdom protests ringing out from the sideline, Mayo referee Liam Devenney consulted with the other man in the white coat before confirming the score.

Another 40 minutes of play took place but the Kerry boss wasn’t up for letting the matter slide as he vented on it after watching his side squander a six-point advantage.

Contentious Donegal point ‘blatantly wide’

“Donegal had a point there that was blatantly wide. Everyone in the stand – ye saw that did ye?” he inquired of the waiting press pack.

“It was a yard wide. Holy Jaysus but anyway it is what it is. You don’t get many breaks when you’re coming to away grounds like this. Just disappointing because I felt we deserved a point out of it at minimum.”

That was the Kerry’s boss first wind on the matter and after then ruminating on this year’s tough league which will see road trips to Galway, Mayo and Tyrone for last July’s Sam Maguire winners, he came back for more.

“It’s going to be fierce tough to get points particularly away from home because you just don’t tend to get any kind of breaks…..the one from the umpire there was fairly blatant.

“That shouldn’t be happening. The linesman said it was wide yet he goes with the umpire. That’s an incredible decision in a Division One game.”

Paddy Carr’s innate politeness made you feel almost guilty as you probed his views on the game’s big post-match talking point. To his credit, he didn’t adopt the Arsene Wenger approach.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to say because my opinion is irrelevant. Whatever the boys decided there themselves. From our angle, I know it tailed off, whether it did on the other side, but there were good men there,” added Carr of the umpires.

The Fanad native’s emotion after leading his county to the surprise win was palpable as he spoke of the Creeslough tragedy in October.

“I’m just very, very proud of everything that happened there today. It’s been a very, very tough time in the county.

“The heart and soul of the county in the Creeslough area are still suffering a lot and we were hoping today, we could bring a bit of joy to those people. I certainly think in the last five minutes they [the players] did.

“I come to an awful lot of Donegal matches and it’s a long while since I’ve seen the entire stand on their feet clapping the team off and that’s a lovely thing to witness.”

Granted, Kerry were without 10 of their All-Ireland Final starters from last July but this still represented a big win for a Donegal side that endured an ultimately bitterly disappointing 2022 after reaching the Ulster Final, and also now in the post-Michael Murphy era after their talisman’s retirement before Christmas.

Indeed, Donegal’s supporters seemed to fall out of love with the side in the final throes in Declan Bonner’s reign last summer as they were massively outnumbered for the qualifier hammering by Armagh after the inhibited display against Derry in the Ulster decider.

But they were back in healthy numbers at MacCumhaill Park, giving their backing to this most enigmatic band of players.

McColgan ‘doesn’t realise how good he is’

Such was man of the match McColgan’s display on his first competitive start, he probably deserved the bit of luck for his contentious score – although Jack O’Connor would doubtless disagree.

The Naomh Padraig Muff player was one of two Inishowen men to make a big impression as Carndonagh lad Conor O’Donnell also fired three points.

“Caolan doesn’t even realise how good he is. We were delighted with him,” added the Donegal boss.

Carr added that he and his coaches Aidan O’Rourke and Paddy Bradley had attempted to take the pressure off the players going into the game by avoiding any talk of the contest being “must-win” despite the tough nature of this year’s Division One, even with Dublin’s absence.

“Getting the performance was the big thing. Really good performances tend to look after the outcome themselves. That was one of the things that we didn’t tighten the players by saying ‘we have to win this’ or ‘we need to win this’.”

And his players kept plugging away throughout, none more so than new captain Patrick McBrearty who came good to fire over the winning point in injury-time after being well-shackled by the Kerry defence for the previous 73 minutes.

“The game could have gone away from us but up stepped Patrick McBrearty as he has done so often for Donegal and he has shown what a great character and a great captain that he is.

“Take your eye off Patrick McBrearty and he’ll make you suffer. He’s been playing a great role in the background with the younger lads. He’s putting a huge amount of work in.”