NOWHERE TO HYDE FOR DONEGAL NOW

DECLAN BONNER was an animated figure as he addressed his players after Saturday night’s loss.

The last thing Bonner wants is for his Donegal side to get their heads down after the five-point defeat to Dublin, not with a vital away game at Dr Hyde Park to come on Saturday.

It’s win or bust for both Donegal and Roscommon after their opening Super 8 defeats and Bonner was making sure he had his troops rallied ahead of the long trip home to the north-west. “Listen, we’ve got a job to do,” he told reporters. “We’ve got to go to Hyde Park and we’ve got to get a result, preparations begin now. “That game (against Dublin), we’ll take the positives from it.

“It’s a huge learning curve for everyone out there, a lot of young lads getting game time against that quality of opposition. So hopefully it will move them onto the next level.

“Listen, we move on – and the end message is that we have six days to get ready for a huge battle against Roscommon next Saturday.”

Donegal had come up a day early to Dublin to prepare for the challenge of meeting the reigning Leinster and All-ireland champions.

And Bonner said he would take some time to analyse the performance and the condition of his players before making any decisions about tactics and personnel against Roscommon.

“It’s a balancing act,” he explained.

“You have to look at the guys who played 70 minutes out there today and that’s going to need recovery over the next 24 to 48 hours, and then there were guys who didn’t get a game and probably need to get work done.

“And the preparation from our point of view starts, we head back up to Donegal and the laptops will be out and it will be analysing that game, plus getting ready for Roscommon next Saturday night.

“So there’s no time to sit back and Saturday night’s game is huge now, it’s a must-win, we must go to Hyde Park and get a result.”