Believe

Believe. Believe. Believe. That’s the key word from proceedings in Clones today.
We’re into a first Ulster Final for five years, a huge achievement for The Messiah in his debut season.
His management has come in for sharp criticism due to the style of play he has the lads playing but today should be a day to marvel at what he has done to the mindset and attitude of Donegal football.
The boys looked very nervous to begin with and didn’t burst out of the blocks as they would have liked.  Tyrone did however and looked like they were going to put on a master class as they did in the 2007 contest. They were powering through Donegal, Sean Cavanagh and Philip Jordan particularly impressive.
They raced into a 0-6 0-1 lead and it could have been an awful lot more.
One critical sequence of play in the first half proved to be hugely decisive….
With Donegal desperate to peg back some of the lead before half time they made a great attack up field, and Anthony Thompson was in possession. With options left and right he hesitated and kicked the ball straight to a Red Hand. Tyrone quickly broke, the ball made its way to Stephen O’Neill who sidestepped inside onto his trusty left boot. Just as he was about to pull the trigger who else but Thompson, after making up 100 yards following his mistake, threw himself at the shot and got in a wonderful block. The ball was worked up the other end of the field where Kevin Cassidy hit a monster of a score from near the touchline.

A goal concession at that stage would have made the gap that bit too much but having being totally outplayed it was just a two point deficit at the break. Tyrone had kicked some bad wides and Donegal knew as they listened to the words of Jim and Rory at half time that they had been given a lifeline and they had to make the most of it - now or never.

Jimmy needed his big players to step up and his commander in chief, despite a frustrating display, did just that. Michael Murphy was well marshalled by Joe McMahon throughout and he was finding it difficult to get on the ball even though he roamed between full and half forward. It just seemed to be one of those days for him - losing his footing, handling a bit off, wasn’t winning frees - nothing was going right for him. The mark of a great footballer though is how they react when these type of things are happening - this boy is a great footballer. He scored the first point after the restart, a beautiful effort after a neat pick up, turn and finish. Murphy was also instrumental in both goals.
The handpass is a much maligned part of our game and it has been used as a stick with which to beat Donegal over the years; but I would urge everyone to look at the pass the Glenswilly maestro played into the path of Karl Lacey in the build up to Colm McFadden’s goal. A perfectly weighted fist pass into the on running Lacey took two defenders out of the game, he fed it inside and Colm rounded the keeper and slammed it home.

Into injury time we went and Donegal on the attack. A loose ball goes straight to Conor Gormley with Dermot Molloy waiting ominously behind him for the ball that never came. Murphy though hits Gormley with a great shoulder, the ball breaks, he slips it to Brick and that was that.

Lacey was again magnificent. It seemed somewhat risky by Jim not to play one of the game’s finest man-markers on Stephen O’Neill; instead that task was given to Neil McGee, who had a super game. Lacey was at centre back, keeping tabs on Brian McGuigan, but he also made many of his customary bursts forward while also winning back possession time and again. It is a dilemma approaching every game as to where to play the Four Masters man, he's as good a marker as there is in the country but his attacking instincts are crucial to this team. With Eoin Bradley lying in wait on July 17th, it's going to be an interesting call.

Mark McHugh would have been well clear in any opta stat index today; he covered every part of the Clones sod in a tireless performance. He‘s the man used as Donegal‘s sweeper when one is needed but he can also score, he can pass and he can carry.

Aside from the heart and desire evident today there were also some of the dark arts were on show - cynicism, time wasting etc. They may be infuriating at times but these little incidents are clues as to how much more streetwise Donegal have become. They are learning how to win and in years gone by a Donegal side would not have come out on top, especially after falling behind early on.
All of these improvements are of course down to one man, Jim McGuinness. He has gotten inside the minds of the players, changed longstanding attitudes and developed a new, different, winning mentality.
In 2007, Donegal were hammered by Tyrone and lost their discipline culminating in a red card for Colm McFadden. Now things are different, today we kept the heads - a mark of what Jimmy has done with the boys. He may be getting criticism but they trust him, they believe in him and thats all that matters.