Carew was quoted as saying: "It's all going to come down to the interpretation of the referee (David Coldrick). If he lets Donegal continue with the cynical fouling of the opposition half-back line in particular, then yes, they will be hard to break down.

"If he punishes them and hands out yellow cards when they are merited, then we'll have a chance.

"We're well able to move the ball quickly but if Donegal get away with the professional fouls, it will obviously be hard to do that."

Having taken time to savour the extra-time victory which booked his county's first All-Ireland semi-final appearance since 2003, McGuinness then hit out at the claims of Carew.

"We're very, very disappointed and we are happy the referee did not take the bait," he insisted.

"It was motivation for us and I'm so proud of the players. Kieran McGeeney was a phenomenal player and he never cried or whinged - we were not impressed by what we read.

"If anyone watched the Kildare players in extra-time, there was a lot of cynical fouling.

"You should do your job on the coaching field. You should not try to beat teams through the media.

"We do not coach cynical fouling. We coach hard work and turning the ball over, we make no apologies for that."

In a hard-fought and absorbing encounter, Donegal were 0-5 to 0-3 behind at half-time. A goal from substitute Christy Toye, with 12 minutes remaining, saw them put one foot in the semi-finals.

However, Kildare battled back to level the game and force extra-time, the first period of which belonged to the Lilywhites and when Emmet Bolton pointed, they were 0-14 to 1-8 clear.

But back came McGuinness' men. Captain Michael Murphy landed a brace of scores, Toye fired over the equaliser and then defender Kevin Cassidy etched his name into Donegal GAA folklore with the winning point.

The Tir Chonaill boss knew that his players would not lack belief in the defining minutes of this exhaustive tie, which was watched by 39,612 spectators.

"I never thought we were beaten, but I haven't felt that all year," admitted McGuinness.

"When we were eight points down when there was 20 minutes to go in the first league game against Sligo, I thought, 'this is what it is like to get beaten as an inter-county manager'.

"But they found something in that game and they dug very, very deep and they got over the line and they got the draw out of the game.

"The following week we went to Omagh and we beat Tyrone. Every single game since that when they have been in a very difficult situation, they haven't taken the easy option and opted out.

"They have always dug their heels in, they have always worked very, very hard and kept on believing."