Derry boss Mickey Harte was left lamenting his tactical plan after Donegal exposed wandering goalkeeper Odhran Lynch.
Lynch, who has helped punish so many sides in recent months, was caught in ‘no man’s land’ for three of Donegal’s goals in the heat of Celtic Park yesterday.
Harte admitted later that the “risk far outweighed the reward” as Jim McGuinness and his team identified the weakness in Derry’s plan.
Shaun Patton kicked two massive kick-outs which caught Lynch out of position and then his replacement Gavin Mulreany launched another to give Donegal fans a huge boost boost on the terraces and in the stands.
Harte said his team had planned for this possible counter attack by Donegal but simply couldn’t cope with it on the day
“It’s disappointing. We didn’t seem to be up to the speed of the game at any stage tonight, even though we still battled our way through the first half and were only a point down, and went in probably happy enough to be that.
“Donegal were definitely sharper, sharper for the second balls, sharper for the turnovers, obviously we got caught badly for the kick-out over the top… we knew it was a distinct possibility, but we felt we had enough people back there to deal with it.
“We didn’t deal with it well and it cost us very dearly. It seems strange that you wouldn’t be ready for that but we felt we were ready for it, felt we could deal with.
“You have to hand it to Donegal, they came here with a very clear mind about how they were going to play, how they were going to create opportunities for themselves to win the game and they did that.”
Harte and his team have five weeks to regroup.
But will he stick with Lynch’s sweeping role after he spectacularly backfired on his team?
“You have to review everything and certainly the things that cost you, you have to review.
“It doesn’t say that it’s not the right thing to do, there are days when it will be an effective method, obviously today was one where it wasn’t.
“It’s a danger when there’s a person on the other side with a boom of a kick-out, then you’ve got to adjust your positioning and all of that. It’s a risk-reward thing and the risk far outweighed the reward for us today.
“We have to lick our sores and figure out when and where you can attempt to do that again, if at all.”
