Roscommon manager Kevin McStay marvelled at majestic Michael Murphy on Saturday evening.
by Chris McNulty at Dr Hyde Park
McStay might have been irked that referee Ciarán Branagan hadn’t awarded a free against the Donegal captain as he powered off Brian Stack for a point late in the first half, but the Roscommon boss hailed the Glenswilly man.
Murphy hit nine points in what will go down as one of his finest hours in a Donegal shirt.
“His performance was just fantastic,” McStay said.
“He’s a once-in-a-generation player that Donegal have had for 10 years. That size, that ability, that power; he has the whole package. He’s a marvellous player. We don’t have that type of player and Donegal should celebrate him because they don’t come around too often.”
Murphy hit five points from play and alternated between full-forward and midfield to devastating effect.
McStay said: “He’s such a humble player. He’s the real deal, isn’t he? Every team would love to have him. He goes about his business and does what his manager wants and what is best for the team. He knows how to manage the game perfectly.”
Roscommon are out, with a game against Dublin still to come.
After an 18-point thumping by Tyrone a week previously, Roscomonnon put up a better showing here.
McStay admitted: “The best team won, no question. They’re ahead of us and we accept that. We gave it our best shot. We kept it a bit tighter and stayed in the game for as long as we could.
“We couldn’t transition as well as we’d have liked, but you can’t put that together in a week. We needed all of our goal chances to hit the net and we didn’t need any silly turnovers.”
