Ulster Senior Football Championship, Ryan Bradley scored two points The Sunday Game gave him their man-of-the-match award. However, TV pundit Pat Spillane also claimed Bradley was "the best of a bad bunch" and didn't deserve the award at all, causing McGuinness to react furiously. McGuinness called Spillane's comments "way over the top". On 17 July 2011, Donegal won their first Ulster title since 1992 when they defeated Derry by a scoreline of 1–11 to 0–8. On 30 July 2011, Donegal faced Kildare in the All-Ireland quarter-final. The sides finished level at full-time, forcing the game into extra-time. Donegal edged out Kildare by a scoreline of 1–12 to 0–14, with late points scored by captain Michael Murphy and two veterans, Christy Toye and Kevin Cassidy. Donegal were then narrowly defeated by Dublin in the semi-final on 28 August 2011; Dublin went on to become All-Ireland champions by defeating Kerry in the final. On 10 November 2011, McGuinness dropped Kevin Cassidy from the Donegal panel after Cassidy contributed to a book (This Is Our Year). Cassidy appeared not to understand why this was so. Cassidy has not played for Donegal since. In what went down as a "surreal moment for the viewer", Mícheál Ó Domhnaill famously interviewed McGuinness following a live 2012 league game on TG4 while Cassidy, in the role of television analyst, stood beside him with his head bowed. Second year In his second season in charge of the Donegal senior football team, McGuinness led his team from the preliminary round of the Ulster Senior Football Championship all the way to the Sam Maguire Cup, two years ahead of schedule, half-way through his intended Olympiad. Donegal retained the Ulster title for the first time in team history on 22 July 2012, with a 2–18 to 0–13 victory over Down. McGuinness then masterminded a comprehensive defeat of Kerry in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship quarter-finals. This result was described by the national media as "the most seismic result in [Kerry] since the 1987 Munster final replay defeat to Cork". Pat Spillane, prominent critic of the team, was nowhere to be seen after this defeat of his own team, though he bumped into Jim McGuinness on the steps of a hotel the following week as McGuinness was being photographed receiving an award. McGuinness then led his team to the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final with a comprehensive semi-final defeat of title-favourites