Jim McGuinness delighted with quarter-final berth: 'We have to make it count now'

Jim McGuinness says Donegal have to make use of their two-week break to the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

By virtue of their own 24-point hammering of Clare in Castlebar and Tyrone's win over Cork, Donegal topped group 3 and head straight for the last eight.

Donegal were only two points shy of their Championship record points tally in a 2-23 to 0-5 win over the Banner.

“It has been a very good season for us so far and they're deserving of getting that quarter-final spot,” McGuinness said.

“We have to make it count now. This week now will take it down a bit, recover as best we can and then start building them up.

“Hopefully we can put them in a good spot and next week we can understand who will be coming out the other dressing room door.

“We pushed so hard to make sure of our position when we got noises down the wire that there could be a chance.

“It means a lot that we can go home and know where we are at. We are delighted. We were chasing that top spot and we had to bring everything that we had.”

A 3-9 to 0-16 defeat by Cork two weeks ago left Donegal needing a favour from Tyrone to have a chance of going through as group winners.

Goals by Ryan McHugh and Oisin Gallen, on a day when 11 players scored, propelled Donegal towards Croke Park.
McGuinness said: “We know ourselves what went wrong in Cork. We were focussed on trying to make those things right.

“I have been saying all year that this is a work in progress and there will be up days and down days. Thankfully, there have been a lot of up days and not too many down days, but you'll always have that trajectory where you're moving forward and there is a step back.

“Today, we stepped forward after the disappointment of Cork.

“Coming down the stretch, we tried to keep the scoreboard ticking. It's not nice in terms of Clare; it's a tough one for them. We had an eye on the other game, we had to keep positive and keep pushing on.”