Rejuvenated Ryan McHugh says Donegal are aiming high.
A 24-point win over Clare on Saturday helped seal a place in the All-Ireland quarter-finals for the Ulster champions.
McHugh scored 1-4 in a 2-23 to 0-5 drubbing of the Banner at MacHale Park.
Donegal are into a first All-Ireland quarter-final since 2016. The return of Jim McGuinness saw McHugh also come back into the fold after taking a break in 2023.
The Kilcar man has been back to his buzzing best this year. McHugh played in the 2014 All-Ireland final, but Donegal haven’t managed to get beyond the last eight in the years since that defeat by Kerry.
“We believe on our day we can give anyone a game, but we have to prove that,” McHugh said.
“We believe that we have a lot of top footballers in Donegal. There’ll be no stone left unturned and it’s over to us now.
“We’re looking forward to getting to Croke Park. It’s been a while since a Donegal team played there in the Championship.
“We will aim high. We won’t look past whoever we get in the draw, but we’ve got great footballers and it’s a matter of us producing it on a given day. We’ve had a lot of good games this year and it’s about showing better consistency now.”
In topping Group Three, aided by a helping hand from Tyrone who overcame Cork, Donegal bypass the preliminary quarter-finals this weekend.
A week off is certainly welcomed in Donegal after a gruelling Ulster Championship campaign that included an extra-time win over Tyrone and a final win over Armagh on sudden death penalties.
McHugh said: “There are no guarantees in these things, but I don’t know if people realise how important the week’s break is. It’s extremely tough on the bodies. We wanted to top the group and we’ve done that.
“We put so, so much into every game. Emotions were high and the whole county was on a high.
“The next two weeks will be extremely exciting for Donegal. The whole county has been getting behind us. It’s unbelievable and we want to put a smile on their faces.”
Donegal didn’t have control of their fate on Saturday, but Cork falling at the hands of Tyrone enabled them to top the pile.
McHugh’s early goal set them on their way to a facile win.
He said: “It means nothing unless we go on now and make that count. We are delighted to be in the quarter-finals. We’re into the unknown a bit now, but we’ll enjoy it.
“Coming into the game, we just had to do our job. We didn’t worry or think about the other games. It all ended well with Tyrone doing us a favour. We put up a big enough score to finish top of the group.
“We played very well and took a good range of scores. We probably haven’t scored enough goals. Even down in Cork, we had one or two goal chances. Had we taken them, it could have been a different game.”
At Pairc Ui Rinn, goals from Matty Taylor, Sean Powter and Rory Maguire – the latter pair in the space of two minutes in the second half – rocked Donegal. That defeat on Leeside was a first loss in 13 outings for Donegal.
McHugh insists that Donegal didn’t dwell too much on that reversal.
The 30-year-old said: “The spirits were high. The trip down was long to Cork, but it felt ten times longer coming home again. It was extremely disappointing the way we played.
“At times, I felt we played really well, but we just had a lot of silly mistakes. It was just one of those days and it put us into a bit of a hole. We could only concentrate on ourselves after it. We just wanted to put ourselves in the best position that we could.”