McGuinness looking forward to a break in hectic season

Donegal manager Jim McGuinness is looking forward to a rare break after his side clinched top spot in their group with a comprehensive win over Clare.

A facile 2-23 to 0-05 victory at MacHale Park coupled with Tyrone's defeat of Cork, means that Donegal finished top of Group 3 and will have two weeks to prepare for their All-Ireland SFC quarter-final.

With much concern over the condensed season and the effect that such a tight schedule is having on players, McGuinness is relieved that his side have bought themselves some breathing room.

He said: "It gives you that wee bit of a buffer, (the players) can come back down, we can recover properly, and then we can start focusing.

"Obviously we won't know as much about the other teams until next weekend, because we're going to have to try and get around the country and see the preliminary quarter-finals, to understand who we're going to get.

"But at least from a physical point of view we know now that we can take it down a level for a couple of days before we start building it up again and hopefully that will be beneficial.

"We had a really tough Ulster campaign and there have been some really big games in the group for us as well and challenging games.

"So yeah, we're delighted to get the fortnight, to be honest with you, and we'll go home now and regroup."

While some eyebrows will be raised at the manner of Donegal’s victory and the lack of fight from Clare, McGuinness was proud of the way his side kept their focus.

With Donegal, Tyrone and Cork all eventually finishing level on four points each with identical records of two wins and one defeat, scoring difference ultimately decided the group and McGuinness was pleased with his side's focus.

"I suppose coming in today, we knew we had