'Equivalent of Mayo going to play us in Omagh' - Jim McGuinness

Jim McGuinness was critical of the decision to make Donegal travel to Roscommon as a neutral venue to face Mayo, with his panel having to drive past the venue to find their accommodation.

Donegal had problems finding somewhere to stay and ended up in Athlone’s Hudson Bay; therefore had to plough on for half an hour on Saturday. McGuinness likened the situation to Mayo being forced to play in Omagh and stay in Derry and said that Donegal made the Central Competitions Control Committee, who arrange the fixtures, aware of their dissatisfaction.

“We had to go beyond the venue to come to play in the venue,” the Donegal manager said following his side's 0-19 to 1-15 win over Mayo, which sealed a home All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final this coming weekend.

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“We put in an email to the CCCC to say we couldn't get a hotel in the area, so we had to stay in Athlone. It was the equivalent of Mayo going to play us in Omagh and staying in Derry, and I don't believe that would happen. I think that would only happen because it's us. I think it would only happen because it's us. We’re disappointed in that.

“We made a case, and we made the case early. It was on deaf ears. But, again, that's for another day, but I don't like the fact that our supporters are always being taken advantage of. We had seven games up to this point. Nobody's played more games than us. Nobody. And yet, and all, we had the longest trek and all those people have to find a way to do all that. Breffni was an option.

McGuinness added that it’s his understanding that the offer of St Tiernach’s Park in Clones was offered as a potential venue, but refused by the CCCC and that Cavan’s Breffni Park was overlooked as Cavan were playing Tyrone in Enniskillen simultaneously as Donegal faced Mayo.

“I believe Clones was offered as a potential venue,” he added. “It didn’t become part of the conversation. From a Donegal point of view, with my Donegal hat on, you have to ask the question, why? Why? Why is that not part of the conversation and 50/50? I believe the Breffni thing was Cavan were playing at the same time and there was a difficulty with stewards.

“That's probably a long conversation column that we would need to have. But yeah, we knew a month ago that it was going to be here and we also knew we couldn't get accommodation, and we also knew that it was going to be difficult for our supporters and we put that case forward and that didn't happen.

“It happens for all the other teams, so why does it not happen for us? Everybody else had a fair shake this weekend. If you look at the two counties and you look at the geographical position, then all the games were fair. This wasn't a fair one.”

McGuinness said that Roscommon is less than 40 minutes from Mayo’s training base, while Donegal’s training centre in Convoy is 186km, or two hours and 39 minutes away, from Dr Hyde Park.

"You're 38 minutes from Mayo's training ground," he added. "We're three and a half hours from Inishowen. It's not fair. If I don't say it, who's going to say it? If I don't say it, who's going to say it? You always seem to be the one that's pointing fingers but at the end of the day, my job, and it's 100% my job, it's the players. The responsibility is to the players. When you're travelling on a bus for three hours the day before a game, that takes it out of your legs.”