BY MATTHEW WILSON
DONEGAL defender Max Campbell was delighted that they were able to stick to the game plan and get the job done against Kerry at Fitzgerald Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Jim McGuinness’s side made the long trip to the Kerry venue for Saturday’s All-Ireland Senior Football Championship opener where they recorded a superb 10-point victory over the reigning All-Ireland champions.
They were helped by the hosts being reduced to 14 men immediately after the restart, with Michael Burns being shown a red card.
However, it was a brilliant display that will have given the group a confidence boost and it was one Campbell was pleased with.
“We knew that it was going to be tough coming down here, it’s probably one of the toughest places to come and try to win a game.
“But we had a game plan and we stuck to it and we managed to get the win.”
The Kingdom hold a very strong record at the Killarney venue having only lost one championship encounter at the ground in the last 28 years.
It’s been a difficult hunting ground for many travelling sides in the past, with the vocal home support making it a cauldron on many occasions in the past.
However, there was a strong visiting support who made the long journey down to Kerry and they made themselves heard, with the Glenties man expressing his praise for them after the match.
“That’s it yeah and it’s a big win for the fans too that came down and supported. It’s always a big lift whenever you have a few thousand Donegal fans coming down and they were a good help.”
There was a lot of disappointment within the county in the last four weeks following Donegal’s Ulster Championship defeat to Down four weeks ago.
The group will have processed their emotions in the aftermath of that defeat and prepared for the start of this All-Ireland Series.
Speaking to the Donegal News, the Naomh Conaill clubman stated that the team knew a big performance was needed to commence this new competition to get their All-Ireland Championship up and running.
“That’s it. Coming out of Ulster we were probably disappointed getting knocked out of the first round but we knew that we’d to get a good win under our belt now to go into the All-Ireland.”
Having performed excellently against the Kingdom in the league final at Croke Park, Campbell was handed another start for Saturday’s clash.
Again, he produced a great display, kicking a fine score in the process, and he’s just happy to be given the vote of confidence to do the job in the side.
“I’m just happy that Jim (McGuinness) is giving me the opportunities to play. I’m young and I’m just happy to help the squad in any way that I can.”
A defeat at the weekend would’ve left Donegal a loss away from exiting the championship.
But on the flip side, they now progress through the winners path where they’ll face a team for a chance to book their place in the quarter-finals of the competition.
This encounter will take place in three weeks time and the youngster expressed that it’s about getting back to the training pitch and preparing for that challenge now.
“We knew that if we lost here then we’d have to go again but thankfully we just stuck to the game plan, got it done and now we’ll move on to the next three weeks to build and prepare.”