Michael Murphy was to the point with his assessment of Donegal’s Super 8 campaign.
A 2-17 to 1-13 defeat to Tyrone in Ballybofey on Sunday ended Donegal’s involvement in this year’s Championship.
Michael Murphy gets his pass away as Tyrone’s Connor McAliskey closes in during Sunday’s game. Photo Evan Logan
Murphy had given Donegal a real sense of hope with a goal just before half time, but Tyrone zipped past them in the last 15 minutes.
Ulster champions Donegal had lost their opening Super 8 clash at Dublin, but hit back to overcome Roscommon on a day when Murphy kicked nine points.
“We can have no complaints,” the Donegal captain said.
“The two best teams went through from our group and the top four teams are in the All-Ireland semi-finals on merit.
“We tried new things out there, but we’ve come up short in the All-Ireland quarter-final stage.”
Murphy is, at least, encouraged by some of Donegal’s young guns, who emerged as long-term options in 2018.
The Glenswilly man said: “The only thing left to clutch onto is that we had a lot of young players who are another year down the line and have another year’s experience. The younger players played very well for us.”
Tyrone punished a series of Donegal errors in the second half and, ultimately, goals from Harry Loughran and Declan McClure sent Tyrone onwards to meet Monaghan in an All-Ireland semi-final this Sunday.
Murphy said: “We were going at it as best we could in the second half, but we turned over ball and Tyrone capitalised on the counter-attack, as they do.
“Once they got the lead, we felt we had to push on and they picked us off with scores at the end. It’s just very disappointing.
“We brought on a couple of changes to try and change things, but they were hitting us over the top with a few kick-outs and they pushed on.
“That’s their style; they’re a really good attacking side. They brought in a couple of very good players off the bench too and did a lot of damage.”
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