Donegal get out in front of Cavan
TWO sides who swapped places in the Allianz League’s top flight at the end of spring, got summer football rolling up north yesterday when demoted Donegal proved convincing winners.
If Declan Bonner’s men were one of the worst teams in Division 1 this year, then Cavan can hardly look forward with relish to next term’s campaign when they will dine at the top table.
Nevertheless, they look back on this encounter in MacCumhaill Park with a large amount of regret as they passed up on too many scoring chances to have expected a passage through to the quarter-finals in Ulster.
In the end, the honour of a last-eight clash with Derry falls to Bonner’s charges who powered to victory on the back of goals from Ryan McHugh and substitute Cian Mulligan.
Mulligan’s goal came in the last minute but it wasn’t the only impact he had on affairs as he also set up two of Paddy McBrearty’s points.
McBrearty wasn’t as influential for most of the encounter as the home supporters might have liked but his late sequence of scores helped his side frank their dominance.
The visitors had netted on 16 minutes, with Killian Clark providing the ammunition for Caoimhin O’Reilly, who fired to the net to leave his side 1-3 to 0-4 to the good with the latter having also contributed two points, while Bryan Magee was also on target.
If that was the cue for Cavan to take a grip on the tie, it never materialised as Donegal reeled off the next seven points to stretch 1-10 to 1-3 in front.
Michael Langan, Calolan Ward and Jamie Brennan shot over for the hosts with McHugh netting before further points followed from Michael Murphy, Langan (again) and Ciarán Thompson.
McHugh’s goal on 24 minutes was a body blow for the Breffni men, a Murphy 45 failed to make the distance and McHugh was the most alert to fist to the net.
Manager Bonner would have been impressed by that rich sequence of scoring until Cavan were given a way back into the tie as Gearóid McKiernan (two) and Niall Murray shot over to leave the men in blue trailing by 1-10 to 1-6 at the interval.
To make matters worse for Donegal, they passed up on an opportunity for a second goal, although credit must go to keeper Raymond Galligan for keeping out McBrearty’s effort.
However, they rediscovered their scoring touch on the restart when Murphy scored a free and a further run of five points saw them take a commanding lead at 1-16 to 1-6.
Game over, or so it should have been, Matt McGleenan’s men refused to give up and got the deficit down to five with McKieran, who finished with seven points to his name, spearheading their second attempt at a comeback.
McBrearty can be thanked for quelling that revival as he
started to make an impact in the Donegal attack before Mulligan’s low drive to the net.
DONEGAL: S Patton; E Ban Gallagher, N McGee, C Ward; S McMenamin (E Doherty 57), P Brennan, R McHugh (C Mulligan 59); H McFadden, L McLoone; C Thompson (C McGinley 52), M Langan, F McGlynn (M McGlynn 64); P McBrearty, M Murphy, J Brennan (S McBrearty 67).
Scorers: M Murphy 0-6 (3f), P McBrearty 0-4, R McHugh, C Mulligan 1-0, C Thompson , Michael Langan 0-3, Jamie Brennan 0-2, Caolan Ward, Leo McLoone 0-1.
CAVAN: R Galligan; J McLoughlin, P Faulkner, N Murray (N Clerkin h-t); K Brady (F Reilly 20), C Brady, C Moynagh; K Clarke, B Magee (A Cole 43); C Mackey, O Kiernan, E Flanagan (D McVeety 52); C O’Reilly, G McKiernan, C Bradley.
Scorers: G McKiernan 0-7 (2f), C O’Reilly 1-3 (0-3f), C Mackey 0-2 (1f), N Murray, B Magee, A Cole 0-1.
Referee: D Gough (Meath)