League final win is ideal championship preparation says Donegal star McHugh

RYAN McHugh felt Sunday’s Division One final victory over Kerry one of Donegal’s best performances in a long time.

Jack O’Connor was pleased in Ballyshannon that Kerry had come back and not made things ugly.

But it was at times on Sunday and at one stage Kerry were on course for their biggest-ever defeat in Croke Park.

That didn’t come to pass but McHugh was thrilled with the display. “I suppose you never envisage winning by 13 points against such high class opposition like Kerry.

“We came up to win but we came up to put in a great performance.

“That’s what league football is about, building on performances and stuff like that.

“To be fair, I think it was one of our best performances over a number of years especially in Croke Park.

“Obviously to win a National title is not easy so to win that, we’re delighted.”

There was some trepidation among fans coming into this season after the All-Ireland defeat but Donegal have since won the McKenna Cup and the league.

McHugh feels it has been a strong campaign for the team.

“It has.

“Jim can obviously speak better than me but from a team point of view, I think we got a lot out of the campaign.

“We won a lot of big games at the start and played a lot of big teams.

“We won a lot of tight games as well which is good to see.

“We were probably a bit disappointed towards the end of the league with the way we put in the performances. Thankfully we had the wee bit of a buffer.

“But to come up here and put in that performance in Croke Park against such opposition like Kerry is a great way to finish and great preparation for the championship in four weeks.”