CIARÁN MOORE is living the dream with Donegal.
The St Eunan’s defender made his Championship debut in Saturday’s pulsating 4-11 to 0-17 Ulster quarter-final victory over Derry at Celtic Park.
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Moore has been one of the finds of the season for boss Jim McGuinness.
The 21-year-old starred in a defensive masterclass against Derry.
He was only 10 years old when Donegal last won the All-Ireland in 2012 but has nailed down a jersey ahead of Sunday’s crunch semi-final against Tyrone, also at Celtic Park.
The full-back said: “When you’re growing up these are the days you dream of. I’m just really thankful to Jim and the boys for giving me the opportunity.
“In 2012 I was 10. They were great times, looking up to the likes of Paddy McBrearty, Michael Murphy and them boys. They set the standard and showed us how good Donegal can be.”
Donegal produced a classic McGuinness ambush on Saturday, with Derry hot favourites to win a third Ulster title in a row.
The Oak Leafers scored 16 goals en route to Division 1 glory last month but Moore’s performance at No 3 was key to the visitors’ clean sheet.
Daire Ó Baoill’s double and Jamie Brennan’s strike were the reward as Donegal keeper Shaun Patton capitalised on the pressing of his Derry counterpart Odhrán Lynch by launching monster kick-outs.
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TACTICS
Moore was delighted the tactics worked.
He added: “We had a plan. We knew we had the talent in the squad.
“That’s something we worked on, trying to keep them out and minimise those goal chances because we know how dangerous they are in transition and getting in behind.
“Shaun Patton is unreal with his kick-outs, he’s able to pick out passes behind the far 45 nearly, so we use that to our advantage and thankfully we got a few goals off it.
“The draw was made a few months ago so we had our target set.
“We’re really happy to be able to capitalise on the kick-outs and get a few goals that really gave us breathing space.
“There’s still a long way to go, so we’ll dust ourselves off and get ready for next week.”
