NO STOPPING MURPHY
Donegal talisman hits seven points as Donegal reel in Royals once again
WITH 13 minutes on the clock at Croke Park yesterday evening, the mind inevitably wandered to bigger issues.
Meath were leading by eight points and we didn’t just consider that the Royals might be back, we got a little giddy and started thinking daft Dublin-related thoughts.
By full-time, the scoreboard displayed a 10-point swing, a two-point win for Donegal inspired by a masterclass from Michael Murphy and suddenly all thoughts of a revolution felt wildly premature.
The All-Ireland winning captain of 2012 helped himself to seven points overall, but his influence stretched far beyond mere scores.
It was the experienced full-forward that gave the Ulster champions the belief that, for the second time this season, they could come from behind and snatch victory from Andy McEntee’s men.
They came from four down in Round 2 of the League to inflict Meath’s only defeat in the group stage and were in even greater bother this time.
Mickey Newman was virtually unmarkable initially for Meath and powered his team to an eight-point lead. It was the same lead that Meath enjoyed at half-time against Westmeath in the 2015 Championship and supporters didn’t need reminding what happened that day.
There was only pride at stake this time, and the quality of the opposition was significantly higher, but it was another chastening loss all the same.
For Donegal, it was the perfect sign off to their campaign ahead of their Ulster SFC clash with Fermanagh in Enniskillen on May 26.
Aside from Murphy, they had strong performances from the likes of Oisin Gallen and Jason McGee while Jamie Brennan’s 58th-minute goal was the strike that ultimately buried Meath.
‘Michael brings so much to the group in terms of that leadership quality, his second-half performance was outstanding,’ said Donegal manager Declan Bonner, who noted Murphy’s role in Brennan’s goal.
‘It was a huge score for us. It was a brilliant move. That’s Jamie’s third goal on the trot now but Michael’s influence is so important.’
Bryan Menton opened the scoring after just 26 seconds and while Murphy cancelled it out, Meath were quickly back on the front foot. Newman put Meath ahead in the third minute and begun a scoring blitz of 1-5 without reply.
Newman, who missed 2018 as he recovered from long-term injuries, made Brendan McCole’s life a nightmare and scored two points off the Donegal defender before catching a long ball in and feeding Barry Dardis who set up Thomas O’Reilly for the opening goal.
That score came in the 11th minute and Meath added points from Newman and Ben Brennan to open up a remarkable 1-6 to 0-1 lead.
Newman was causing such damage that Bonner whipped McCole out of the action after just 14 minutes and brought on veteran Neil McGee to mark him.
Finally catching their breath now, Donegal reeled off four points on the trot, two from Brennan, to haul themselves into the contest.
Meath persisted with the direct approach and got plenty of joy from it. Twice before half-time Newman was denied scores, first when HawkEye confirmed a point attempt went wide and then, in the 33rd minute, when his palmed goal was ruled out for a square ball offence. It was a marginal call and while Meath still led 1-8 to 0-8 at that time, it would prove a costly call for them. Still, all looked good for the underdogs at that stage as they regained the impetus and surged five points clear again by half-time, 1-10 to 0-8. Bryan McMahon and Cillian O’Sullivan were excellent up front for Meath initially and despite conceding the wind advantage for the second half, it appeared they could hold on. Donegal drew on all their big game experience of recent years, however, to ensure that the second half was all about them as they firstly recovered to draw level and then moved in for the kill. They held Meath to just five second-half points, only one of which came from play.
It was down to just one point when Donegal wove the move of the game involving Gallen and Murphy to eventually play in Brennan for the crucial goal. Murphy added another point and a bad evening for Meath ended with Shane Gallagher’s dismissal for a black card on top of an earlier booking. Donegal: S Patton; S McMenamin, B McCole (N McGee 14), P McGrath; L McLoone (E Doherty h-t), R McHugh, E Ban Gallagher; J McGee, H McFadden; D Ó Baoill (E McHugh 54), N O’Donnell, C McGonagle (M Langan 44); J Brennan, M Murphy, O Gallen. Scorers: M Murphy 0-7 (5f, 2m), J Brennan 1-2, O Gallen 0-4, N O’Donnell, J McGee 0-2 each. Yellow cards: M Murphy 16, E Doherty 43 Wides: 8 Meath: A Colgan; S Gallagher, C McGill, S Lavin; J McEntee, D Keogan, R Ryan; B Menton, S McEntee (G McCoy 65); C O’Sullivan, B McMahon (G Reilly 35), B Brennan (D Campion 43); B Dardis, M Newman, T O’Reilly (J Conlon 65). Scorers: M Newman 0-5 (0-2f, 0-1m), T O’Reilly 1-1, C O’Sullivan (1f), B McMahon 0-2 each, G Reilly, B Dardis, B Menton, S McEntee, B Brennan 0-1 each. Yellow card: B Brennan 28, S Gallagher 65, S Gallagher 65, C O’Sullivan 71 Black card: S Gallagher 70. Red card: S Gallagher 70. Wides: 6. Referee: D O’Mahoney (Tipperary).