In the days before this semi-final, Donegal found themselves in a familiar place: locked away together and the world not giving them much of a chance.

Not much had changed since their now famous first meeting with Jim McGuinness in Downings when they discussed why they were ranked 18th in a national newspaper. Four years on, they had the experience of three Ulster and one All-Ireland title as they set about doing what most considered impossible and beat Dublin.

“It was a bit like Ali in the Foreman fight: absorb everything and try and stay in there,” said Eamon McGee when the job was complete.

“It was a big psychological blow for the Dubs to throw everything at us and to find themselves a point down at the break. They got a few goal chances and in fairness Papa (Paul Durcan) pulled off a good save. It was just a case of sticking in there, sticking in there and I knew we would get our patch. And we totally profited from it when it did come along.”

Vague hope

McGee admitted that the 2011 semi-final defeat against Dublin has always been in the back of his mind: just a vague hope that he would get another chance to play against the city team in high summer.

“Definitely. It was like. You get these dream games. The Dubs in a full house is a dream game. Playing Kerry in Croke Park is a dream game. We had a chance and let ourselves down in 2011. We obviously weren’t down the line far enough and would have loved to get a shot at them with a bit more work behind us. And that is what today was all about.”

Donegal now have to turn their attention to the other mythical beast of Gaelic football. Kerry's win against Mayo in Limerick on Saturday night was as elemental and heroic as they come. Even without their talisman Colm Cooper, Kerry are back in an All-Ireland final.

“Kerry are Kerry and being in an All-Ireland final: the majority of their players are brought up to believe that that’s where they should be and they have the history to back that up.

‘Formidable opposition’

“They will be formidable opposition. Ask any Donegal lad growing up and it was a case of scoring a goal in the last minute against Kerry in an All-Ireland final. So it is the dream final. But you have to focus on the game.”

Afterwards, there was a rush to acclaim this as Donegal’s best performance under McGuinness but when it was put to him, the manager paused for a few moments.

“I’ll have to look at it. We were very good against Cork in 2012. Cork were a very, very good team as well, an excellent team. Dublin did present a massive challenge. They kicked a lot of ball into their full-forward line but they really targeted long-range points from outside the 45 and we were caught with three or four of them in the first half.

“When we cut that out, we forced them inside and our full-backs done well. Our kick-outs were good. We tried our best on their kick-outs – that’s all I can say. We really worked hard on it. It’s very, very difficult to contain their kick-outs and that gives them a massive platform and a massive number of possessions. I thought we done well to compete with that and that turned a few of the percentages back in our favour.”

That was it. A day that began with Dublin utterly dictating terms concluded with Donegal running the match precisely how they pleased. Not for the first time, good things happened with the introduction of Christy Toye. The St Michael's man said that news of the Donegal minor team's victory over a fancied Dublin side gave the seniors a great lift.

Strong emotions

“A bit of a cheer went up and it added to the confidence. It was the same with the Donegal support out there – they were magnificent as always. Whenever we won a ball or broke it or won a tackle, a roar went up.”

Above all players, Toye’s contribution to Donegal’s resurgence will evoke strong emotions among the delighted clans returning to the Hills.

When the All-Ireland champions suffered their traumatic exit last summer, Toye wondered if he would ever play football again as he battled with a neurological disorder which was, he admitted later, a form of mental torture. He recovered and committed for another year.

“Last year didn’t go to plan for us. There were external factors in terms of injuries, but this year Jim installed that belief in us. We went back training early and we had a game plan up and running. We got up and running and that gave us a lot of belief early in the year. We won Ulster and that filled us with more confidence. People were talking about Dublin blowing teams away, but we were just working away and trying to set ourselves up defensively as well as we could to stop them creating chances and then try to hit them on the break. We took those chances.”