Goal-hungry McHugh chipping away at Dubs’ aura of invincibility

RYAN McHUGH has been a constant thorn in the side of Jim Gavin-managed Dublin football teams, so much so that he has now scored more goals against the reigning champions since 2013, the season he joined the Donegal squad and Gavin took over, than any other player.

McHugh has scored four goals, one more than Kerry’s James O’Donoghue.

Dublin have held supremacy over the game over the last four years but McHugh has been the f ly in the ointment when the sides have met.

Operating between half-back and half-forward, he has got the timing of his runs to perfection with his goals either side of half-time in the 2014 All-Ireland semi-final effectively handing Gavin his only Championship defeat.

McHugh has scored four of the seven goals that Donegal have scored in seven games against the reigning League and All-Ireland champions in that time. He sprinted 80 metres to finish a counter-attack in last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final that briefly gave Donegal hope before striking again in Ballybofey on Sunday.

His former team-mate Colm McFadden is one of four players who have scored goals twice against Dublin in the 64 League and Championship games of Gavin’s successful stewardship.

Cork have been the most regular goalscorers against Dublin, hitting 10 in seven meetings, with Colm O’Neill and Mark Collins grabbing two each.

Mayo have played Dublin nine times across that period but have scored just six goals.

Of the top teams Tyrone and Monaghan have struggled most to score goals against Dublin. Darren Hughes is Monaghan’s only goalscorer in four meetings, while Tyrone have crossed swords in five League games now with just Peter Harte and Aidan McRory on target.

Meanwhile McHugh’s Donegal colleague Frank McGlynn has outlined why Donegal’s squad rejected the ides of the an All-Ireland quarter-final roundrobin series when canvassed for opinion by the GPA.

Donegal were among the 70pc of inter-county players who were opposed to the motion passed at Congress on Saturday.

“In our eyes, it’s an extra two games and if you’re defeated in an All-Ireland quarter-final, it frees up the month of August for club football,” he said. “If you’re defeated in the first two group games, if your chances are gone you’re playing an extra game when there’s no need to.

“That’s what’s been decided, it’s up to everyone to work with it.”

McGlynn also fears that the gap between the top teams and the rest, who don’t regularly make ‘super eights’ will widen.