DECLAN BONNER WILL be hoping his side have their shooting boots on as Meath visit Ballybofey on Saturday night. The Donegal manager saw his team open their Allianz League Division 2 with a 0-16 to 0-13 win over Clare in Ennis yesterday and although that’s a respectable offensive total on the road and in January, he admitted some of their shooting wasn’t what it might’ve been.
Donegal kicked only one wide in the first half – a Michael Langan effort after the St Michael’s man had been flawless with his first four placed balls.
However, in the second period, Donegal – minus Michael Murphy and Patrick McBrearty of course – were off target nine more times, including five in succession in the third quarter, and also dropped two balls short.
“It was patchy,” said Bonner afterwards. “We played reasonably well and we kicked 16 scores which we would be happy with. We conceded a fair few also. “There are a lot of good footballers in Clare but from our point of view it was all about getting the result today and getting over the line, and we did that.”
“There were some bad wides and that’s something that we are going to have to look at. “Generally we’re fairly efficient in front of goals and our kicking in the first half was very good. “We went from that to poor shooting in the second half.”
Donegal were in fact playing with the elements in that second half but perhaps that was the reason for some of the optimistic efforts. In the end, Bonner’s team can be praised for getting back into their groove with the likes of Jamie Brennan, Jason McGee (pictured) and Hugh McFadden kicking important late scores.
“There was a slight breeze with us in the second half, but I think we were just slightly out of our scoring range and we made wrong shot choices,” Bonner added.
All in all though, Bonner was content to get their season off to a winning start and Donegal can look forward to the visit of the other only side in the division who won today, Meath, who defeated Tipperary 0-15 to 1-8.
Bonner added: “I will be encouraging our players to make sure they don’t go into their shells, and that they continue expressing themselves, so that if those opportunities come up next Saturday night against Meath, they’ll go for them again.”
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