Despite trailing Monaghan by seven points at halftime in their All-Ireland quarter-final, Donegal manager Jim McGuinness opted not to make any substitutions. He explained that this decision was based on trusting the established process and game plan.
This strategy proved successful. After being down 1-15 to 0-11, Donegal rallied to secure a 1-26 to 1-20 victory, advancing to the semi-finals.
Monaghan’s significant halftime lead presented Donegal with a considerable challenge, but they responded emphatically.
“We didn’t change anything to be honest because we had the work done and the plan going into the game done,” McGuinness stated after the match.
“We just doubled down on that, and we didn’t change any personnel. We trusted the fellas to get it right themselves and it’s over to the players then.”
“You have a moment, then when you say ‘we’re in a hole here’, and only the players can get you out of that so we’re very happy that they responded the way they did and I’m very happy with the bench as well, everyone that came on made a massive contribution.”
“We trust our processes and that what we’re doing week in, week out is going to be stress tested and there is a different stress every single game. We’re into a semi-final now and I don’t know who we’ll be playing but there will be a different set of variables.”
“Letting ourselves drift back to a seven-point deficit was a tough enough hole to be in but I would caveat that with the fact we’re playing against a team very hungry for twos.”
“But once we were able to get that under control in the second half and they continued to look for twos but it was dropping short and that was a double edged sword because you’re not conceding twos and you’re scoring at the other end which is what we tried to do from the first minute.”
McGuinness lauds players’ effort as Donegal through to All-Ireland Semis was last modified: June 28th, 2025 by
