A big team talk needed from Jim McGuinness at half time as his team are down three points
IT is not the scoreline any Donegal fan expected or wanted to see.
When the half time whistle came, Jimmy McGuinness couldn’t wait to get his team into the dressing room and have an urgent talk to try and regroup.
Monaghan came out of the traps quickly and Darren Hughes put the Farney men 0-1 up after less than a minutes.
Two more free kicks to Monaghan and by the seventh minute of the game Jimmy’s boys were 0-4 down.
Donegal’s cause didn’t get any better when Mark McHugh had to go on nine minutes with what looked like a dead leg.
It wasn’t until the 15 minute that Donegal had their first opportunity on goal but Colin McFadden put his free wide.
On 20 minutes, Rory Kavanagh thought his point had gone over the bar but the linesmen and referee consulted and said it had gone wide.
By 30 minutes, Monaghan had gone 0-5 up with a free kick from Conor McManus.
Things were staring to look bleak for Donegal.
However, on 31 minutes McFadden landed Donegal’s first point with a free 20 yards out of the Monaghan goal.
And with one minute of extra time gone, Frank McGlynn pegs the deficit back to just three points.