TWO dressing rooms. Two teams. One winner. Pete McGrath, whom many of us thought we had said farewell to on this same turf one year ago, stands in the linking corridor. As good days go, this one was too relief tinged to be truly memorable. Anyway Pete has learned caution in these situations.

"Passes were a bit too ambitious," says Pete, tactfully, of his headstrong players. "Things didn't come off. In terms of effort though, we couldn't fault them. The save towards the end of the game was crucial. After that it would have been an uphill struggle."

"People say we are a dry weather team. Certain players today weren't getting away from their men. You have to expect that however. We have to learn from Donegal's experience last year, have to play with the same commitment and play better football. All I know at this stage is that we are in the first round of the championship.

"In the final analysis today the sending off worked for us. For a while though, it undermined our concentration and led us astray. I didn't see the incident, but I know Michael Magill was groggy for a while afterwards. I feel sorry for the lad sent off."

James McCartan, whose work for Down's cause had been ceaseless in the second half, stopped to offer a few words.

Relieved man.

"We got out of jail I think. If you were a Donegal man you'd be feeling very aggrieved. A man sent off after 15 seconds; a goal given away after I don't know how many minutes. Down did their best to kick the game away. That's the only thing we haven't managed to do that we set out to do this year. Relieved isn't the word for it. That's 18 months worth of luck we got today."

An adventurous soul asks James about pulling and dragging out of Noel Hegarty in the second half. James smiles.

"You've got a way with the words. Well that's that lads."

Exit James.

Conor Deegan has a short one word description of how Down performed. He delivers it and then asks that it not be printed.

"We made a lot of fundamental basic errors. Kicking aimlessly. Stupid angles. Lots of things. Not holding on to the ball. We are training again this week. We'll work on it."

There's the rub. Donegal won't be back to work until next Autumn. Gary Walsh spoke softly about the goal incident, which in the end, had been instrumental in splitting the sides.

"The umpire on the left hand side went straight for the flag as soon as I caught the ball. I'd have to see it on the telly, but for a man my size to be caught like that I'd have to be two feet behind the line. I don't think so. I think it was a disastrous decision. The umpire on the other side said he couldn't see, there was a man in his way. "I watched the ball all the way in. It's the first time anything like that has happened in 14 years. I didn't think I was a foot over the line, never mind two feet."

PJ McGowan, frustrated at having caught another glimpse of his side's immense potential, was courteous as ever. Donegal have played some of their best football of the decade over the last two seasons. The winds aren't behind them however. Disappointment seeped into PJ's thoughts.

And the sending off, the first domino in the falling stack?

"It was two players tussling. One side punished. Both sides guilty. We felt his loss badly. Down made effective use of the extra man in the first half. After the break I didn't notice the extra man. I would say that I was less than happy with overall performance of officials. That's all I'd say."

And so he moseyed off to be with his players, conscious that history is the domain of winners.