Bonner off mark as Donegal take Tyrone’s crown
THE wound won’t have cut very deep, but Donegal struck a pyschological blow of sorts by ending Tyrone’s six-year domination of the Dr McKenna Cup in a curiously entertaining game in the Athletic Grounds.
Mickey Harte fielded a very inexperienced line-up and while both sides brought on the heavy artillery in the second half, Donegal were more impressive in getting the job done to win this pre-season competition for the first time since 2010.
Tyrone finished with 14 players as they had used all six substitutes by the time Mattie Donnelly picked up a second card in the closing stages.
Such was the culture shock, the 4,287 in the Athletic Grounds must have felt they’d been transported back in time to about 1990.
It was as refreshing as it was unexpected, with defences left exposed courtesy of real, actual, man-to-man marking.
With Mickey Harte making 14 changes and Declan Bonner eight from last week’s League games, there was a lot of inexperience and wide-eyed naivety on the field – and the game was all the better for it.
With a huge League game to come between these teams on March 3 in Omagh, there was a considerable element of shadow-boxing going on – demonstrated by Donegal’s decision to leave star forward Paddy McBrearty out of the match-day squad.
In a first half played with the pace and intensity of summer, Daire O Baoill struck the first point after 30 seconds and on two occasions early on, Tyrone drew level through Conall McCann and Kieran McGeary before Harry Loughran’s side-foot finish from close range put Tyrone in front for the only time, at 1-2 to 0-4, after seven minutes.
Donegal were playing with a lot of exuberance and with Ciaran Thompson giving Aidan McCrory the runaround, they had plenty of scoring opportunities. Thompson’s quick ball into Martin McElhinney resulted in a Donegal goal after 10 minutes, the latter’s deft left-foot finish putting them 1-4 to 1-2 up.
They briefly stretched the lead to five through Odhran MacNiallais, Marty Reilly and Paul Brennan, but Tyrone were better in the second quarter and stayed in touch.
Darren McCurry and Ronan O’Neill started to get their hands on the ball and Cathal McCarron bounced forward for a lovely leftfooted point to reduce the deficit to a very manageable 1-9 to 1-6 at the break.
The fun didn’t last long once the big hitters arrived in the second half and the game slowed down into a more attritional, dogged affair.
Mattie Donnelly, Peter Harte, Niall Sludden and Cathal McShane came on for Tyrone and the holders outscored Donegal by four points to one in the opening 10 minutes after the restart, Ronan O’Neill with three of them.
Yet every time Tyrone drew level, Donegal responded. Niall O’Donnell, one of their new forwards, kicked 0-3 from play as the game came back to life after a subdued third quarter.
Just to liven things up further, Michael Murphy came on for the last half an hour and almost immediately scored his first point of 2018, going around Paudie Hampsey to dispatch a skyscraper between the posts.
Keen to get some game-time into rusty legs before next week’s relegation battle with Kildare, Bonner brought Neil McGee on for his first appearance of the year for five minutes’ stoppage-time.
Paul Brennan and Murphy added late points to lift the first piece of silverware of Bonner’s reign. Donegal: S Patton; S McMenamin, C Morrison, F McGlynn (C Ward 53); E Doherty (N McGee 70), P Brennan, D O Baoill; O MacNiallais, H McFadden; C Thompson, M McElhinney (M Murphy 42), M McHugh; C McGonigle (B McCole 63), S McBrearty (N O’Donnell 25), M Reilly (N Mullins 46) Scorers: M McElhinney 1-1, M Murphy (2f), N O’Donnell 0-3, M Reilly (1f), D O Baoill, P Brennan 0-2, F McGlynn, O MacNiallais, C Thompson 0-1. Tyrone: M O’Neill; A McCrory (HP McGeary 50), C McCarron, B Burns; M Cassidy (C McShane 41), R McNabb, K McGeary (P Harte 42); R McNamee, B McDonnell (C Meyler 54); D McClure (M Donnelly 41), H Loughran (N Sludden 60), C McCann; D McCurry, R McHugh, R O’Neill Scorers: R O’Neill 0-6 (5f), H Loughran 1-1, C McCarron, K McGeary, C McCann, D McClure, D McCurry 0-1. referee: B Cassidy (Derry).