[8] However, he played at centre-forward as Charlie Mulgrew had sustained a broken jaw in the semi-final victory over Monaghan.
However, he did not receive a man-of-the-match award, which instead went to clubmate Michael Carr (in a repeat occurrence from the 1980 Donegal Senior Football Championship final).
[9] Yet Kieran Keeney was also brought to the ground to win the same penalty in an incident that appeared not to involve McHugh (Donegal Democrat, 2009).
[citation needed] McHugh was a replacement All Star in 1990 and made the trip to both coasts of the United States.
[10] In a restaurant in Cavan on the way back, someone came over and rubbed salt into his wounds by saying: "Where was your famous Martin McHugh today?
Mark was born the Wednesday after Martin McHugh's Donegal side were defeated by Meath in the semi-final of the 1990 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.
[9] McHugh wanted to take charge of Donegal after 1992 All-Ireland manager Brian McEniff left the job.
[18] As of 2012, McHugh was working as a GAA pundit for BBC Television and Radio[19] and was also writing for the Irish Daily Star newspaper.
At the end of the 2012 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, with McHugh on the sideline working for BBC television coverage of the game, his son Mark, part of the victorious Donegal team, ran to embrace him.
[21][22] The emotional moment, as Martin recalled the death of his father Jim the previous October and his mother Kathleen's Alzheimer's, was widely broadcast and became one of the "iconic images" of the victory.
[23] In 2013, he called for change to the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and stated that the back door only helped stronger counties such as his own.
[26] During television coverage of the 2021 Ulster Senior Football Championship game between Donegal and Derry, McHugh said some of the players on the pitch were not of inter-county standard.
At a press event ahead of the 2022 National Football League (which marked Allianz's long-term involvement with that competition), McHugh was asked about those remarks.
He said: "I just felt — and I watched him last night again (in the Sigerson Cup) and he played very well — that Jason McGee was a player we needed off the bench.
[27] He put himself forward for the role of Donegal's delegate to central council in 2009 but, though he was ahead after the first count, he was ultimately rejected.