'We knew it'd be physical but the boys stood their ground'

Jim McGuinness' side condemned Kerry to a rare championship defeat in Killarney [Getty Images] Donegal manager Jim McGuinness admitted that Micheal Burns' red card had a "big impact" as his side hammered Kerry to reach Round 2A of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. The dismissal of Kerry's Burns before the start of the second half proved a major turning point, following a heated altercation between the sides after the half-time hooter that left Donegal's Ryan McHugh bleeding from the eye. "Listen, it was a tough, tough game.

Obviously, the sending off had a big impact on the game and probably had a big impact on the scoreboard as well," McGuinness told BBC Sport NI. "It would have been a much different game in the second half other than that, but listen, from our own point of view, we were happy with the way we played, happy with the first half. "It would have been a tougher battle in the second half, no doubt about that, but we're just happy to get the result.

" There is clearly no love lost between the two counties following a fierce recent rivalry for the biggest prizes. Kerry claimed last year's All-Ireland title before Donegal gained a measure of revenge by winning the Division One final in March. Kerry felt Donegal forward Michael Murphy was lucky to escape a red card in that league decider for a high-fisted challenge on Kingdom defender Dylan Casey and the bad blood from that game seemingly spilled into Saturday with the home side welcoming the All-Star forward to Killarney with a few scuffles before the ball was even thrown in.

"No, that was the big one. We knew coming into the game it was going to be that way," added McGuinness. "It was going to be a very, very physical battle and the key thing for us was just to stand your ground and thankfully the boys did that and got the victory as well.