Donegal manager Jim McGuinness admitted that Micheal Burns’ red card had a “big impact” as his side hammered Kerry to reach Round 2A of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.
The dismissal of Kerry’s Burns before the start of the second half proved a major turning point, following a heated altercation between the sides after the half-time hooter that left Donegal’s Ryan McHugh bleeding from the eye.
“Listen, it was a tough, tough game. Obviously, the sending off had a big impact on the game and probably had a big impact on the scoreboard as well,” McGuinness told BBC Sport NI.
“It would have been a much different game in the second half other than that, but listen, from our own point of view, we were happy with the way we played, happy with the first half.
“It would have been a tougher battle in the second half, no doubt about that, but we’re just happy to get the result.”
There is clearly no love lost between the two counties following a fierce recent rivalry for the biggest prizes. Kerry claimed last year’s All-Ireland title before Donegal gained a measure of revenge by winning the Division One final in March.
Kerry felt Donegal forward Michael Murphy was lucky to escape a red card in that league decider for a high-fisted challenge on Kingdom defender Dylan Casey and the bad blood from that game seemingly spilled into Saturday with the home side welcoming the All-Star forward to Killarney with a few scuffles before the ball was even thrown in.
“No, that was the big one. We knew coming into the game it was going to be that way,” added McGuinness.
“It was going to be a very, very physical battle and the key thing for us was just to stand your ground and thankfully the boys did that and got the victory as well.”
The Tir Chonaill side are now potentially just one win away from a return to Croke Park for the last eight of the All-Ireland series after bouncing back from their shock Ulster quarter-final defeat by Down in impressive fashion.
“I suppose, getting the win and putting us in a position now where one more victory could take us to the quarter-final is what we were looking for,” said McGuinness, who hopes to lead Donegal to a second All-Ireland title as manager after masterminding the 2012 win in his first spell.
“That was the big part coming in here today. It was a game that we wanted to win from that point of view, listen, we just tried to embrace it.
“It gives us the opportunity now to win one more game and hopefully we can do that now.
“At the end of the day, it’s very, very disappointing when you get beaten at Ulster. It was important we got back on the horse today and thankfully the boys did that.”
