Jim McGuinness 'delighted to get over the line' as Donegal book semi-final place

As he sat in the bowels of the Cusack Stand, itching to rise quickly to cast an eye over Derry and Kerry, Jim McGuinness was pretty content with his lot.

Donegal had eleven different scorers as they defeated Louth 1-23 to 0-13 at Croke Park to book a place in an All-Ireland semi-final against Galway.

It is ten years since McGuinness's last stint as manager of Donegal and ten years since the county last appeared in a semi-final.

Eoghan Ban Gallagher's goal, with 11 minutes of his 100^th Donegal appearance remaining, extinguished whatever faint Louth hopes that lingered around the old theatre.

“We're extremely happy to be in a semi-final,” McGuinness said. “At the beginning of the year, if we were told that we'd have taken your arm off.

“The most important thing in Championship football, as everybody knows, is to progress. Once you progress, you have a chance to sort things out and make them better. We are delighted to get over the line; delighted for the Donegal supporters, here and abroad.

“We have bought ourselves another fortnight and we must make that count now.”

Louth came poised for an upset, appearing in their first ever quarter-final.

The Wee County stayed in touch for as long as the could but ran out of gas in the second half.

Forearmed was forewarned for Donegal, who defeated Ger Brennan's men in Ballyshannon in Division 2 at the start of March.

Then, a Jeaic Mac Ceallabhuí goal earned a 1-17 to 0-15 win with the three-pointer coming when just two points were between the sides.

McGuinness said: “We had a similar scenario today, which was great. We knew that was coming. If we hadn't had the experience from Ballyshannon, it could have been tighter.

“Louth are very much on an upward trajectory and they have some great running power. They are certainly a team that is coming.

“To post 1-23 in a quarter-final is something that we'd be very, very happy with.

“You need that spread of scorers from all over the place. People were popping up all over the place, which was very important.

“Defensively, we conceded 18 points and Louth looked dangerous and threatening at times. There are certainly areas that we will be able to go back and look at.”

Galway, who lowered the colours of the reigning champions, Dublin, on Saturday night, await Donegal in the last four.

McGuinness said: “We are going to double down to focus on Galway as much as we can and try to get ourselves right for that.

“We are here now. The most important thing in championship football is getting into the next round.

“We are in the next round and we must make the next fortnight count. We have to prepare to the best level possible.

“All of these games – and we can talk about Dublin, Kerry, whoever – are just individual battles that you have to try to understand and develop a plan around.

“Executing the plan is the hard part. Galway will present the next challenge for us and we have to try to solve those problems.”