Jim McGuinness makes Donegal men feel invincible - Mark McHugh

The impact Jim McGuinness has had on Donegal fortunes cannot be disputed.

No Ulster SFC titles between the one he claimed in 1992 as a player and the first of three in four years as manager in 2011. A first All-Ireland title in two decades in 2012 and runners-up two years later.

Relegated from Division 1 of the Allianz Football League and eliminated from Ulster in the quarter-finals last year before a preliminary quarter-final exit to Tyrone under interim management.

Straight back up as Division 1 winners, Ulster champions (after beating Derry, Tyrone and then Armagh, on penalties) and now All-Ireland semi-finalists in the first year of his second spell in charge.

"If you compare it to this time last year it is completely night and day," says 2012 All-Star Mark McHugh, whose brother Ryan was among the team that beat Louth by six points in the last eight.

"What Jim and the lads have done this year, it is completely 360 from where we were. Speaking to the lads from other counties, they are amazed, and we are all amazed, but then again, we shouldn't be because of the man that is leading the ship.

"In the last number of years, we couldn't follow them too far [into the championship]. They were beaten in the first round of Ulster by Down, it was disappointing.

"My own kids were looking at Kerry and Dublin, whatever, now they want to follow Donegal again. Their heroes are the Donegal players, not somebody else from another county.

"It is one man that has done all of this."

How has he been able to effect such a dramatic turnaround?

"Jim McGuinness' biggest strength, in my view, is that air of confidence and invincibility," says McHugh.

"That is probably what he has instilled in them from day one, that they can play as well as anybody else.