Galway 0-11 Donegal 0-14
Donegal have confounded the critics with a sterling performance to dispose of Galway by 0-14 to 0-11 in the All-Ireland quarter-final replay in Castlebar today.
Donegal supporters were left sweating until the end however as they watched Galway pull their team to within striking distance only for some heroic defending to deny the misfiring Connacht men.
Donegal won this however, rather than having it gifted to them, and the began the game with the intent of a team determined to right the wrongs of Galway's last gasp equaliser from Kevin Walsh a week earlier.
From as early as the first minute Brendan Devenney led the line and confidently converted a free that his marauding run had earned.Devenney added two more after Walsh had registered Galway's first score 11 minutes into the tie.Not surprisingly it wasn't long before Donegal captain Adrian Sweeney got in on the act as he scored his first two of the game before Derek Savage and Michael Donnellan pointed keeping Galway in touch at 05 - 04.Undeterred Donegal scored three on the bounce through Michael Hegarty, Christy Toye and Sweeney before Padraig Joyce registered his first score of the game to leave Donegal with a 09 to 06 half-time lead.The opening minutes of the second half were crucial for both teams but it was Donegal who made the most of them with unanswered points from Toye, Sweeney, Hegarty and Brendan Boyle.Clearly rattled Galway floundered in their urgency as Donegal confidence visibly grew. The usually reliable Joyce missed two goal chances as the Galway attack became more frantic.The writing was on the wall for Galway when a goalbound effort was brilliantly blocked on the line byShane Carr.Joe Bergin was to have a half chance before the final whistle but blazed it wide, displaying the panicking urgency that seemed to scupper Galway's fightback from the beginning.Donegal's early second half form proved to be decisive then as they ran out deserved winners of a game in which they were never behind.