Donegal manager Jim McGuinness felt Patrick McBrearty’s red card had a big bearing on Saturday’s McKenna Cup Final.
Donegal were four points down with the breeze supporting them when Brendan Rogers was given his marching orders.
A skirmish then broke out and team captain McBrearty was pinpointed for ‘contributing to a melee’ and was shown a red card.
McBrearty will not be suspended for the start of the league next week, which is a plus for Donegal.
However, McGuinness was disappointed that his county’s supporters went home disappointed as his team lost by six points.
“I think Derry upped the levels in the second half and we struggled to deal with it.
“They had a lot of runners and a lot of people getting much more space than what they were getting in the first half, and they were able to exploit that.
“In fairness to them, they kicked some very good scores against the breeze.
“I suppose the sending off situation had a big bearing on the game.
“There were maybe twenty minutes left in the game and Brendan Rogers seen the line, and it was very disappointing from our point of view that somebody got involved.
“That was a big moment. I think we were a man up with twenty minutes to go with the breeze that was there.
“It could have been a different situation but Derry kicked on after that.”
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