McGuinness: Second half failings need addressed

WHILE Jim McGuinness was delighted with Donegal’s third consecutive win of the league campaign as they impressed against Mayo at Letterkenny on Sunday, he did admit that his side “dropped off” after the turnaround.

Against the wind, Donegal played some really good stuff inside the opening 35 minutes and carried a 0-11 to 0-5 lead into the half time break, and Conor O’Donnell’s second half goal saw them earn a 1-19 to 0-14 victory in the end.

Last year’s beaten All-Ireland finalists are top of the Division One table after three games following victories over Dublin at Croke Park as well as wins against Kerry and Mayo on home soil.

“The first half in particular, we’d be very happy with a lot of it,” said the 2012 All-Ireland winning manager. “We asked a good few questions of them, our build up was really good, our established attack was really good.

“We were good on their kickouts but in the second half we dropped off, it’s the same conversation that we had the weekend of the Kerry match. Our numbers were down in the second half on our own kickout.

“Mayo seemed to get it away a lot easier, we became a wee bit sloppier on the ball, we didn’t secure the ball quickly enough at times, trying handpasses that probably weren’t on and a couple of them went to feet.

“Some of the same things are there that we need to address and tidy up but the flipside of that is that you’re playing a team that’s very strong, very powerful, very aggressive in the way they want to step to you and in the main, they met that challenge really, really well.

“Obviously there was a lot of good performances, particularly up front, and points on the board which gives us a wee bit more flexibility to look at other things.”