Donegal manager Jimmy McGuinness has bristled at any suggestion that he should be concerned about receiving a possible touchline ban in the aftermath of the events in Killarney on Saturday. Last year’s Sam Maguire Cup runners-up were far too good for Kerry , for the third time this season, in this tempestuous All-Ireland SFC (Round 1) clash which boiled over on the half-time hooter. In the aftermath of unsavoury scenes which saw Micheál Burns sent off before the second half commenced , TV footage also
showed McGuinness involved in an incident with Diarmuid O’Connor. Dublin manager Ger Brennan is currently serving a 12-week ban because of a physical altercation with Galway strength and conditioning coach Cian Breathnach McGinn during Dublin’s league clash against the Tribesmen at Pearse Stadium. In a tetchy exchange with a journalist after the 2-20 to 1-6 win , the Donegal boss didn’t take kindly to a suggestion that he could potentially end up in similar hot water. “Are you trying to get me banned? Is that
what you’re trying? What are you saying it for then? So you’re flying that kite, are you? We are talking about it, but you’re not talking about the incident,” he said. “You’re talking about, out of 50 people, you’re finger pointing me, is that what you’re saying? There were 50 people on the pitch there. You’ve asked the question that you wanted to ask.” With Donegal already five points ahead (1-11 to 0-9) at half-time, they cruised through the second half with more than a
bit to spare, Ciaran Moore and sub Shea Malone with the goals. “Listen, we’re happy. We came down to try to win the game. We wanted to try and go to the quarter-final through the front door. We have one game now to do that,” he added. “If we can win the next one, we’re there. That was the objective. We’ll never know how the game would have panned out if it was 15v15, but we were happy with our performance up to half-time. “It’s
a totally different game, tactically, when you have a man up. It’s very difficult for the opposition. If we were in the same boat, we would have been in deep trouble as well.” Michael Langan and Oisín Gallen shone brightest for the winners, with 10 points between them from play over the 70 minutes, against a Kingdom side that had no answer on the resumption. “Obviously the second half was a bit of a damp squib. I thought we were still in the game at
half-time, but if there’s one team you don’t want to go down a man against, it’s Donegal,” said Jack O’Connor. “At this stage, we’re not in a position to be too precious about what road we go. We’ll just do our best. We’ll gather the troops next week, we’ll train, and we’ll try to get a couple of fellas back if we can. “Obviously we’re down important bodies at the moment. Even fellas that are coming back are undercooked. That’s where we’re at. “It looks
a long road back at the moment, but we’ll gather ourselves and we won’t die without a fight,” stressed the Kerry manager. KERRY : S Murphy; E Looney, J Foley, D Casey; T Morley 0-1, M Breen, G O’Sullivan 0-1; M O’Shea, D O’Connor; M Burns 0-1, K Evans, S O’Brien; P Clifford 0-1, D Clifford 0-4 (0-1f, 1tp), D Geaney 0-3. Subs: E Healy for Morley (ht), T Brosnan 0-4 (2tp) for P Clifford (45), B Ó Beaglaoich for O’Sullivan, head inj (45), J
O’Connor for Evans (48), K Spillane for Geaney (56), C Trant 0-1 for O’Brien (59). DONEGAL : G Mulreany; M Campbell 0-1, B McCole, P Mogan 0-2; R McHugh 0-2 (tp), E Bán Gallagher, F Roarty; C McGonagle, H McFadden; O Gallen 0-5 (1tp), J McGee 0-1, C Moore 1-1; C O’Donnell, M Murphy 0-1, M Langan 0-5 (1tp). Subs: S O’Donnell 0-1 for McHugh, inj (ht), S Malone 1-1 for Gallen (56), McHugh for Roarty (59), D Ó Baoill for Murphy (60), T Carr
for McFadden (63), S Martin for Campbell (64). REFEREE : S Hurson (Tyrone). Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond
Jim McGuinness, Donegal, Kerry, All-Ireland SFC, Killarney, touchline ban, Micheál Burns, Diarmuid O’Connor, Ger Brennan, Cian Breathnach McGinn, Pearse Stadium