DONEGAL RIP UP SCRIPT
McGuinness delivers a tactical masterclass to sink fancied Derry
JIMMY’S winning matches again, as he usually does in the Ulster championship. Jim McGuinness delivered a tactical masterclass in the sun-splashed Celtic Park last night as Donegal tore Mickey Harte’s Derry to shreds.
It’s a result that will make everyone sit up and take notice. The Oak Leafers came into this game as one of the ‘big three’ in the All-Ireland race, alongside Dublin and Kerry. The manner in which they won the league title, even if it took penalties to see off the Dubs, had many rating Derry as the team who could win it all this summer.
They still might, of course. The funny thing is that this result might end up suiting Derry as they are out of the warfare that is the Ulster championship and have six weeks to lick their wounds and prepare for Sam Maguire. But they will need to work on the flaws that Donegal exposed here.
Daire Ó Baoill was named as player of the match, not surprising as he scored Donegal’s first two goals, which blew this game wide open. And both goals came from the same source, a booming kick-out from Shaun Patton and Donegal exposing Ódhran Lynch’s tendency to press high on the opposition restart.
It is something that Harte and his assistant Gavin Devlin will need to look at over the coming weeks. Time and again, Patton’s superb kick-outs exposed a vulnerability at the heart of the Derry defence. The risk and reward with Lynch playing fly-keeper was very much more of a risk last night.
And yet, Derry persisted with the tactic. After Oisín Gallen got a third goal from the penalty spot — when Niall O’Donnell’s run towards goal was halted by Chrissy McKaigue, substitute Jamie Brennan scored a fourth goal, again from Lynch being exposed by his insistence on playing as an auxiliary outfield player.
Brennan’s thumping finish was the cherry on top of this polished and energetic Donegal performance. These two teams had good league campaigns, though the Tír Chonaill men were playing in the second tier.
Maybe the drama of that penalty shoot-out win against Dublin took too much out of Derry. Or perhaps, they just had trouble reaching that pitch of performance again.
But this game did show that if Derry’s main players are shut down, then they do tend to struggle.
And McGuinness did a brilliant job in neutralising Conor Glass and Shane McGuigan. Neither Jason McGee or Brendan McCole played much football in the league, but they were drafted into the team here at the eleventh hour and they both did a superb job in curtailing Glass and McGuigan respectively.
It was left to others to pick up the slack. Ethan Doherty scored three fine points in an absorbing first-half and Paul Cassidy kicked two, but Derry always seemed second best. There was just more energy and desire to Donegal, even in the opening 10 minutes when the teams felt each other out. Derry were two points up after six minutes and Donegal had to wait until Gallen nailed a 45 before getting off the mark in the ninth minute.
But there were signs that Donegal were finding their feet. Ryan McHugh was outstanding for most of the game and was finding pockets of space amid the congestion. It was McHugh’s clever play that created Ó Baoill’s first goal in the 19th minute, the Gweedore man
finishing his lobbed effort into a net without a goalkeeper with aplomb.
There was a real energy and purpose to the Donegal performance that they lacked last season. Under McGuinness, every player knows their job. And it was a stark contrast to Derry, who only played in moments.
Brendan Rodgers, who was also quiet, did pop up to nail what seemed like a crucial score just before the interval to ensure Derry were only a point down at the break, 1-7 to 0-9. It had set up an intriguing second half. But Ó Baoill’s second goal, only moments after the restart, and with Patton and the influential McHugh again involved, ended all that intrigue.
Donegal played with pace and energy for most of the game — the only spell when Derry were in the ascendancy was the 10-minute spell when Niall O’Donnell was in the sin-bin, but even at that stage when they stitched three points together, it felt like they were only putting gloss on the scoreline.
From McCole and Caolán McGonagle offering solidity at the back, McHugh and Peadar Mogan punching holes in the middle third and McGee doing a job on Conor Glass, this was a typical tactical masterclass from McGuinness. He has made the Donegal players believe again.
As for Derry, there are plenty of questions for Harte and Delvin. The persistence of Lynch as a flykeeper will need to be looked at, as will their dependence on McGuigan and Glass, and what happens when they can’t influence a game. But this early exit may suit their All-Ireland ambitions.
The summer opens up for Donegal. With their messiah back at the helm, they will start believing anything is possible.