By Matthew Wilson
Donegal defender Brendan McCole insists that they have things to work on in the aftermath of Sunday’s draw with Galway at Father Tierney Park in Ballyshannon.
With 45 minutes on the clock at the Ballyshannon venue, Jim McGuinness’s side faced an uphill task as they saw themselves six points adrift while also having a man less following Stephen McMenamin’s dismissal.
However, they continued to battle hard and a late Peadar Mogan two-pointer earned them a share of the spoils while also maintaining their unbeaten record in the league.
Speaking to the Donegal News, McCole expressed that they wouldn’t be pleased with their overall display but was happy not to have come away empty handed.
“We’re probably disappointed but positive at the same time, we played a lot of the game with 14 men.
“We would’ve been disappointed with the first half, we’d a lot of turnovers which probably related to a lot of their scores.
“To come away with something from the day is a positive but there’s definitely stuff to work on.”
Being six points behind and a man less than Galway for the last 25 minutes, the game could’ve gotten away from Donegal on Sunday.
However, this wasn’t the case as they managed to find a bit of momentum and with the packed out crowd behind them, they managed to force their way back into it.
This spirit and determination will come as a real positive for the side and McCole stated that it was a brilliant attitude that the group displayed.
“Yeah definitely, we showed a good enough attitude to get a result out of it. Losing a man five or ten minutes into the second half to come back from six or seven down.
“Some of the boys stepped up massively, Peadar’s (Mogan) score at the end there was huge. Jason McGee had a super block, he tracked a super amount of yards to get back to it.
“It was just a great attitude to show it, with 14 men it’s never easy but there’s definitely plenty to work on.
“We started the second half sloppy as well as finishing the first half sloppy so it’s just not what we targeted.”
The Mountcharles native is the go-to man to marshall the opposition’s main threat and on this occasion it was Galway’s Robert Finnerty.
The pair had a great duel throughout proceedings on Sunday and McCole limited the dangerous forward to two points from play.
The St Naul’s clubman did a great job against Finnerty on Sunday, even if he wasn’t so sure himself, and he was high in praise of the Salthill Knocknacarra club player.
“I don’t know if I’d go that far now. He’s a superb player, his movement is really good. He’s probably one of the top footballers in Ireland nowadays. He’s great athleticism and the left foot is dangerous, the way he can cut and the back door so he’s definitely one to watch.”
The reigning Ulster and Dr McKenna Cup champions displayed a different side to their game against Galway on Sunday.
This was the first league contest of the year where they saw themselves trail for a significant period, having led against Dublin, Kerry, Mayo and Armagh for the most part.
This battling character was great to see from the group when things weren’t going all their own way but McCole stated that it’s not a situation that they will want to get used to.
“It’s one way of looking at it. It’s probably not something that we would like to be getting good at, playing with 14 men.
“There’s definitely learning from it somewhere along the way but it’s probably just about reflecting on it now, seeing where those positives came from and learning from them.”
