MURPHY’S LAW
Donegal star says his only target at HQ was a score
MICHAEL MURPHY said he was “trying to get up the field” at the time of the incident that resulted in his red card against Dublin.
The Donegal captain was sent off along with his marker John Small during injury time in Dublin’s one-point win on Saturday, with both men shown second yellow cards.
Murphy was rather fortunate not to receive a red card rather than a yellow early on the game after appearing to catch Davy Byrne with a raised elbow, but he looked to be the innocent party for his second booking, with TV replays indicating that he was brought to ground by a combination of Small and Dublin’s Brian Howard as Donegal chased a late equaliser.
“What are you going to say about it? I was a forward trying to get up the field and attack and I get a yellow card so that’s the way,” said Murphy.
When asked if the incident was along the same lines as that which saw Kerry’s David Clifford controversially redcarded against Tyrone earlier this month (below), Murphy replied: “Ah I don’t know, part of it felt like that anyway.
“I was trying to get up the field and the two of us went down then and all of a sudden, probably because of the length of time we were in the shemozzle, there was always going to be two yellow cards then but it is what it is.
“You’re going to get that in football, two teams going at it, two players going at it. It was frustrating and disappointing but we need to learn from it and move on.”
Ultimately, defeat was Donegal’s lot once again in a game they had led right up until Paul Mannion’s 66th minute goal and it extends their winless run against Dublin to eight matches, stretching back to their shock win in the 2014 Allireland semi-final.
Indeed, while Donegal have won the last two
Ulster titles, their record against the top sides has been poor over the last couple of years.
“You need to get over the line, getting over that line is the big part,” Murphy continued.
“I still believe we’re on the right track. I still believe we’re on the right journey, the team is maturing and we just need to keep pushing at it.
“I keep going back to it: keep developing the squad we have there and keep getting bodies playing because I do feel that the game at the moment, it’s a 20/25-man game and we need to keep developing a squad that’s strong enough for that and we just keep trying to improve.”
It was a second successive one-point defeat for Donegal, having lost to Galway in Letterkenny on February 9, and they welcome Monaghan to Ballyshannon next Sunday.