DONEGAL Under 20 boss Gary Boyle admitted that his side were ‘very lucky’ to get the two points against Fermanagh at the Scarvey last night.
Defeat for Donegal would have left them under real pressure in the group and they were behind for most of the match.
However, Thomas Lenehan got them back on level terms and then Kalvin McLaughlin curled over the winner as Donegal prevailed by 2-15 to 3-11.
“I think we were behind for most of the game,” said Naomh Muire’s Boyle.
“We took the lead in injury-time and that was our first time ahead in the game.
“We were very lucky to get out of here with two points tonight.”
Donegal struggled to deal with Fermanagh’s press early on and fell 1-5 to no score down after ten minutes.
Boyle said: “We had a bad start and even when we played Fermanagh last year we had a bad start against them up in Enniskillen.
“We were 1-5 down early on and after 10-12 minutes we started to get a grip on the game and we started to get shots off.
“We had a hell of a lot of the ball and when you take into account that we were eight points down and they got another two goals after that, we still managed to get over the line.
“Fair play to the lads for keeping going. Anything that could have gone wrong tonight probably went wrong, and they showed the character to keep at it and at it and at it.
“Even when we were missing easy chances in the last quarter, they got out and they kept going again and fair play to them for that.”
There was the disappointing sight of senior star Conor McCahill hobbling off after he seemed to pick up a knock kicking a shot early on.
The Four Masters man will now be in a race to be fit for Sunday’s NFL match with Monaghan.
“We will just have to see now,” said Boyle.
“Hopefully he will be alright.
“He had a bit of a dead leg but hopefully he will be ok.”
Young Footballer of the Year Finnbarr Roarty is Donegal Under 20 captain but didn’t tog out in Buncrana.
“Finnbarr was available for us tonight.
“We decided after the game in Roscommon on Sunday that he had a big seventy minutes and with the conditions and that – looking ahead to the schedule over the next couple of weeks, we just decided we would go with the lads we had tonight.
“We gave Finnbarr a rest tonight because we’re going to need him going forward.”