ULSTER SFC QUARTER-FINAL: Antrim 1-10 Donegal 0-12: SAFFRON UNTIL they die – in between tropical rain storms plummeting down on Ballybofey, a small band of Antrim supporters celebrated a famous day for their sometimes forgotten football team.
Antrim’s bright days in the Ulster championship can be tallied on one hand, but they are all the sweeter for that. The last time they beat Donegal was in 1970 and 1951 remains their glittering year, when they were crowned champions.
It was a year that Liam Bradley reminded them of before they left the dressingroom and they played as though inspired by the men of that vintage.
This thoroughly deserved victory underlines the fact that the footballers from the GAA enclaves of Belfast city and the stronghold of clubs scattered around the south of the county join their hurling brethren in the Glens in presenting Antrim as perhaps the most under-appreciated ‘dual county’ in the GAA.
And yesterday, against a spectacularly self-destructive Donegal outfit, they were also the jewel of the Northern Crown.
On paper, this had the look of a mismatch. In the league, the teams had played at the extreme ends of the programme, albeit Antrim coasting to promotion in the basement level while Donegal took the express elevator going down from Division One. Still, the easy assumption was that the gulf would be too wide and that Donegal, particularly with home advantage, would get their championship ambitions rolling here.
But this was nearly a perfect coup by Antrim. From the beginning, when a radical series of positional switches seemed to bamboozle the home team, it was apparent this was an Antrim side bearing the mindset of their veteran coach, Bradley.
Aodhan Gallagher, who had a storming match at centrefield, confidently hammered the first point and, from that moment on, it was as if Antrim took ownership of MacCumhaill Park.
The heavy rains resulted in a disappointing attendance of 12,544 and the majority of the home support was quickly put straight on the assumption that this was going to be one of the traditional days when Antrim turned up in plucky-but-just-not-good-enough mode.
For long parts of the afternoon – and most raucously at the close – Antrim voices broke the dead afternoon heat. There was something wonderfully fearless and unbreakable about the Antrim spirit and approach and discipline that ought to be a lesson to county teams with grander ambitions – including Donegal.
They refused to allow anything to become a hindrance. After just nine minutes, they lost their veteran goalkeeper Seán McGreevy after he finished off a groin strain that he had wrenched during the warm-up in stretching to parry Conal Dunne’s low shot.
Losing such a senior man might have been an upset, but Antrim simply got on with business.
“This hasn’t sunk in,” beamed a delighted McGreevy afterwards.
“But it will rank along with beating Down back in 2000. Because all the talk was of Donegal getting to an Ulster final and it was sickening to have to listen to, being honest. Getting your face rubbed into it.
“And Donegal beat themselves in a way today with their wides and stuff, but they weren’t as good as people made them out to be. So maybe it is time that people started looking at these Antrim players and recognised that they are half decent.”
McGreevy is a perennial figure on the Antrim side – as he said himself, he was listed as 39 on last year’s match programme. “They are going to be calling me Benjamin Button in the dressingroom soon.”
It was a day for cool heads – Kevin Brady, Seán Burke and Terry O’Neill played very smart, compact football all afternoon. But the younger players stepped up the occasion as well, most notably Tomas McCann, whose positive aggression belied the fact that this was just his second championship opening.
McCann got the crucial 56th-minute goal that lit the sky with Saffron audacity and self-belief. And it was a goal that matched their character, sharp and opportunistic and, most importantly, cocky.
Donegal were breaking downfield in their own leisurely way when, near half way, the hard -working Tony Scullion spied an opportunity, meeting Ciarán Bonner with a perfect shoulder that sent the Donegal man over the line in possession. Before Donegal realised that they were back on defensive duty, Scullion had freed McCann with a quick sideline ball.
“I think I saw Tony running from the halfway just to stick him across the line and I knew what was coming, I was doing a bit of poaching,” McCann remembered. “And I just drilled it.”
That goal left Donegal in a hole, trailing 1-9 to 0-8 with just 13 minutes remaining. It did seem to wake them from the zombie state that seemed to afflict them for long periods of the match.
They rattled three decently worked points in succession to leave just one point between the teams and then manufactured three shocking wides as they continued to boss possession.
Shooting was at the heart of Donegal’s demise. They registered 18 wides over the match, some of which can be attributed to the fine smothering defence of the Antrim back-line, but most of which were down to the lackadaisical approach and tentative finishing of the Donegal men. And they seemed hell-bent on not giving the ball to Michael Murphy.
The Glenswilly man was on song and showed he could win whatever came his way and kicked a beauty of a point on 32 minutes which ought to have clarified for his team-mates what they needed to do. But Murphy was as mystified as everyone else as he stood deep in Antrim territory for the 20 minutes of the second half when Donegal failed to score.
“The way I saw it, the ball didn’t go into him enough,” admitted a crestfallen Donegal boss, John Joe Doherty.
This defeat places Donegal football in the bleakest position. An Ulster title was the chief objective for the team and that has been written off in a manner that will leave the mood in the county deeply pessimistic.
Relegated, dumped out of Ulster by Antrim and faced with the prospect of players seeking employment elsewhere, it has not been a good year so far.
“The way Antrim were written off coming in here didn’t make much sense,” Doherty lamented. “But I can assure you that we were not complacent and I would fully congratulate them. We had enough possession all game. In terms of fitness, we finished strongly so I don’t think that was an issue. The lads coming back from injury did okay.
“We all have gone through this feeling over the last number of years, but you have to be a man enough to come back and face the qualifiers. We had a chat and the vibes are positive, but at the moment, it is very tough.
“I would like to get a good team in the qualifiers. We were a sitting duck here today.”
On other days, Donegal might have rescued the day. It probably crossed Doherty’s mind on the drive home to Glen that in the fabled year of 1992, Donegal were lucky to draw with Antrim before going on to win the All-Ireland.
Rescue time loomed here until Antrim, with just two minutes left and in siege mood, broke downfield and substitute Kevin O’Boyle had the bravery to back himself to kick a fine, curling score on the run to leave the match at 1-10 to 0-11.
Donegal replied quickly with a score from Rory Kavanagh, but they had already wasted too many chances and Antrim deserved to win the match in regulation.
This marked their first championship win since they beat Cavan in 2003. Now the Blues, with their illustrious Ulster history, will provide the opposition for Bradley’s rejuvenated Saffrons.
“Think we have lost the surprise factor, but we still have the players,” beamed Aodhan Gallagher before leaving the field with his man of the match sculpture.
“Donegal adjusted to our game plan and we still came out on top, so I don’t think that will make a difference.”
So Antrim stride into semi-final land, ready to take on the world.
ANTRIM:S McGreevy; C Brady, A McClean, D McCann; T Scullion, J Loughrey, T O'Neill; A Gallagher (0-1), N McKeever; T McCann (1-1), K Brady (0-1), J Crozier; S Burke (0-1 free), M McCann, P Cunningham (0-5, three frees). Subs:P Graham for S McGreevy (9 mins), K O'Boyle (0-1) for D McCann (42 mins), K Niblock for S Burke (50 mins), C Close for K Brady (53 mins), B Hasson for N McKeever. Yellow cards: S Burke (17 mins), T O'Neill (66 mins).
DONEGAL: P Durcan; E McGee, N McGee, K Lacey; B Dunnion, K Cassidy, M McGuire; N Gallagher, B Boyle; C Bonner (0-1), M Hegarty, R Kavanagh (0-3); C McFadden (0-2 frees), M Murphy (0-5, three frees, one 45), C Dunne. Subs:C Toye (0-1) for B Dunnion (HT), B Roper for M Hegarty (48 mins), D Walsh for C Dunne (51 mins), F McGlynn for B Boyle (57 mins). Yellow card: M McGuire (68 mins).
Referee:P Hughes (Armagh).
