Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
YOU BLUE IT..AGAIN
Dublin’s rivals in control once more but, not for first time, are pipped at post
IN three of their four League games, Donegal have had their noses in front coming down the straight but they have precious little to show for it.
Conversely, Dublin have been chasing a deficit in all bar one of their outings and remain unbeaten.
The exception for both teams was in round two when Donegal made light work of a Meath side which is probably the weakest in Division One, and by a reasonable distance, while Dublin kept Mayo under the thumb.
Beyond that, Donegal have only amassed a single point from winning positions against Mayo, Galway and now Dublin, who came good just in time to get a result, as they had done against Kerry and Monaghan.
Donegal fashioned three decent goal-scoring opportunities in the game and took just one. It could be argued Dublin didn’t create any, yet they got one in the 66th minute as Shaun Patton fumbled Brian Howard’s speculative delivery, allowing Paul Mannion to palm to the net.
It was the first time they had led in the entire match and came just minutes after Paddy Mcbrearty had a shot blocked by Evan Comerford, who also denied Ryan Mchugh in the first-half after Hugh Mcfadden had netted for the visitors in the sixth minute, which helped them to a 1-6 to 0-7 halftime lead.
“It probably turned on two instances,” said Donegal boss Declan Bonner. “We had a goal opportunity to really make it difficult for Dublin to get back at us, but we didn’t take the opportunity and the goal we gave away was poor.
“At this level you get punished, and we were punished.”
There was still a bit to run after Mannion’s goal; injury time was eventful and, in Bonner’s opinion, shorter than it ought to have been.
Seven minutes were signalled and just over eight were played, despite a lengthy stoppage for a skirmish that resulted in Donegal captain Michael Murphy, who was masterful on the evening, and his marker John
Small being dismissed for second bookable offences by Maurice Deegan in the 76th minute.
“I’ve seen games going on four or five minutes after,” said Bonner. “That incident in the middle of the field was held up for at least two or three minutes, maybe I’m wrong.
“It’s not going to change the result for us now. So we’ll go back up the road. We’re sitting on three points and there’s a huge match for us against Monaghan next Sunday.”
Dublin boss Dessie Farrell was pleased at the manner his charges ground out another result.
He said: “There’s a huge amount for us to look at in terms of our performance. On the plus side, happy with the level of intensity that was shown, particularly in that first-half, even though we struggled in the early quarter.
“But it was still better than what we put out two weeks ago against Monaghan so that was a plus. Our intensity was a little bit higher than that game so happy with that. “On the downside, we coughed up a couple of goal chances. Evan Comerford did really well at certain stages, made some big saves for us so there’s huge room for growth and improvement.”