Declan Bonner hailed Donegal's character after they produced a storming finish to see off Meath in Ballybofey.

The Ulster champions looked to be in a spot of bother when they trailed by 1-11 to 1-12 with 15 minutes remaining, but they responded by outscoring the visitors by 1-8 to 0-1 down the home stretch to run out flattering 2-19 to 1-13 winners.

“The main objective here was to win. We had a home match first in the Super 8s so it was important that we got two points on the board," the Donegal manager said. 

“We questioned our last quarter against Tyrone in the Ulster semi-final and against Cavan in the Ulster final. Today our last quarter was top drawer. They gave us energy, they gave us legs and gave us quality at a time we needed it.

“We were asked a lot of questions and the lads showed real character. I thought Ryan McHugh was outstanding. Michael Murphy leads by example all the time. But there were a lot of big performances out there.

“Michael Langan, I thought, put in a real shift. Paddy McBrearty, in his 100th game, got a number of vital scores. He got that goal in the first half.

“And young Oisín Gallen looked lively coming off the bench. I thought he finished off the goal well. So we have plenty to work on, there are areas for improvement. But we’ll look at that.”

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