Michael Murphy, the Donegal captain, had few complaints about the outcome and believed there was a variety of factors behind his team’s shortcoming in their 1-14 to 1-10 loss against Mayo in Castlebar, writes Alan Foley.
Donegal’s first loss of the championship means their dreams are over for another year and it’ll be Jame Horan’s Mayo who take their place in the All-Ireland semi-finals, alongside Dublin, Tyrone and Kerry.
Michael Murphy looks for options during Saturday’s game. Photo Evan Logan
Murphy scored 1-4 for Donegal but couldn’t prevent his team going out at the exact same stage as last year, when they went down to Tyrone in the last round of the Super 8’s series in Ballybofey.
“It’s difficult to take and difficult to stomach,” he said. “We didn’t perform, we weren’t at the levels individually or collectively as a team, but credit must go to Mayo too for forcing that upon us.
“We had a few injuries, but we were very, very confident of the team that we had here that were able to come with the performance both physically and technically but we didn’t come up with the goods in the end and that’s a culmination of ourselves just not at it individually and what Mayo brought to us.
“It’s an All-Ireland semi-final missed out on yet another year. We’re going to have to go back and keep believing. I do believe what we have here is a good group of footballers and I do believe if we keep at it and keep ticking and coming back again and again that we can keep pushing on and put Donegal in a better place.”
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