Jim McGuinness got his second spell as Donegal manager off to a strong start on Wednesday night, as his side ran out comfortable winners over Armagh on night one of the Dr McKenna Cup.
MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey held a big crowd of 3,825 for the first pre-season fixture of 2024 for both counties and ultimately Donegal ran out comfortable 3-16 to 1-6 winners.
Armagh fielded a team entirely made up of U20 players, with Kieran McGeeney not even in attendance in Ballybofey, while McGuinness handed debuts to five up-and-comers as he sought to get to grips with the new squad at his disposal.
McGuinness left his role as Donegal manager in 2014 but returned after the county's lacklustre performance in last year's intercounty championship.
As evidenced by the crowds in attendance on Wednesday night, hype levels in Donegal are high after McGuinness' return - and the manager said it was an "easy" decision to return to his post after much deliberation.
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Jim McGuinness reflects after first game back as Donegal manager
After his side's routine victory on Wednesday night, Jim McGuinness spoke to the BBC and was asked about his decision to return to the job which brought him such success the first time around.
McGuinness said that, though he had initially had to think hard about whether it would be right to return, he ultimately could not turn down his county when they required a push in the right direction:
It was a big decision. But it was [easy] in the end. Obviously, Donegal were in a bad place. Whenever the conversations started happening, it was one of those ones that I knew it was the right thing to do.
Hopefully now we're back in the position that we can bring them together, build on a lot of different areas over the next few months and get as ready as possible for the Ulster championship.
The turnout of fans for a pre-season game showed just how high excitement levels are within Donegal for the return of the 2012 All-Ireland winning manager, with tailbacks on the road into Ballybofey in the hours leading up to the match.
Ulster football is different. https://t.co/lFulNnF7r1
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) January 3, 2024
The decision of Armagh to field an U20 team in the absence of their manager Kieran McGeeney raised more than a few eyebrows - but McGuinness said that every county was entitled to take their own approach to pre-season competition:
That's not for me to say [whether it was disrespectful of Armagh].
Like I said, we have our own agenda that we want to cover. We had a lot of niggles through pre-season, a lot of senior players that didn't get training under their belt, so it was great for them tonight to be out on the pitch and to be getting minutes. Some of them got through it really well.
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