Donegal 1-16, Galway 0-12
The opening session of Allianz's Division Two programme will feature a timely reunion between last year's Ulster finalists, Donegal and Monaghan, just when both teams are travelling at a rate of knots. Their meeting in three weeks time has the heat and dust of that Ulster final as a backdrop and with neither side in a mood to blink, it should be meaty.
On a fine afternoon in Salthill, there was further evidence that Donegal have closed the book on last season. They were comfortable throughout against Galway and ran the bench in a way that suggests that the Donegal larder is not as empty as generally believed.
Familiar names and deeds formed the architecture for this result – 1-5 from Colm McFadden, an agenda-setting tackle/turnover by Neil McGee on Paul Conroy, an exhibition of unfussy brilliance by Anthony Thompson – but the Donegal management can point to the assured contributions of Ryan McHugh and Odhran Mac Niallis as early evidence that Donegal will have further options this summer.
This second consecutive defeat leaves Galway in a slightly uncomfortable place. Alan Mulholland knew that their opening schedule would be tough and with players just returning from injury, an oh-for-two opening was a real possibility. Losing Finian Hanley, who suffered a deep cut in a 10-minute collision, did not help them here. Nor did the opening 20 minutes when Donegal bossed both clean possession and breaking ball at midfield and then proceeded to cheat the strong breeze by easing into their slick, short-passing game interweaving backs and forwards.
McGee, Rory Kavanagh and Colm McFadden were the only Donegal men who remained in their match programme positions here. The others just played ball. Ryan McHugh appears to have his brother's appetite for hard work and it was his hustle for possession, deep in Donegal country, which forced the turnover and initiated the seven-pass counter-attack which Colm McFadden finished by sliding the ball past Manus Breathnach.
Breathing space
The 14th-minute goal gave the visitors breathing space after playing into a strong wind on a pitch left inevitably soggy by the recent storms. "We played with that strong wind and didn't get as much out of it as we needed to, being honest," said Mulholland. "We were a bit disappointed to go in five points down and the goal was the key score for them."
Galway played in bursts, with Conroy and Gary Sice kicking tremendous scores and Paul Varley repeatedly made clever ground along the Donegal wing. They worked like demons in defence, with Joss Moore and Johnny Duane fronting the collective effort to repel the Donegal waves. James Kavanagh put in an industrious shift around the midfield diamond but featured little in the Galway attack as a consequence.
Despite three terrific points by Eoin Concannon early in the second half, Donegal controlled the flow of the game. A shuddering tackle by Martin McElhinney led to another turnover and a point for Odhran Mac Neilis to leave it 1-10 to 0-8 and after that Galway couldn’t win enough cutting-edge possession to create a real goal chance.
If anything, Donegal might have raised further green flags: an audacious chip by McFadden late in the first half bounced wide, Ryan McHugh burst through the last maroon line several times and Declan Walsh opted to clip a point with a goal chance looming in the 70th minute.
Leo McLoone, restored this season to the half-back line where he debuted, hurt Galway by repeatedly running excellent lines as he broke forward and his Glenties team-mate Thompson seemed to pop up everywhere. “Again, like last Sunday, there were some very good passages of play in terms of support play coming up the pitch,” said Jim McGuinness.
“I mentioned last week that our natural game in Donegal in terms of playing in windy conditions and supporting the ball and we were comfortable with that today again. We wanted to push on but Galway came out very tough in the second half and took the game too us. In the first half we were getting a lot of contact in the tackle and turnovers. In the second half, we were getting there but the legs were tired.”
Donegal now have three weeks to get the bunting up for the visit to Letterkenny of Ulster champions Monaghan. “It does put a bit of pressure on us,” said Alan Mulholland.
But its February pressure which is rarely remembered by the time the Connacht championship rolls around.
DONEGAL: 1 P Durcan, 2 K Lacey, 3 N McGee, 5 F McGlynn; 4 R McHugh (0-1), 6 L McLoone, 7 A Thompson; 8 R Kavanagh, 9 McMcElhinney ; 10 M McHugh, 11 C Toye, 12 O McNeilis (0-1); 13 C McFadden (1-5, 0-2 frees), 14 M Murphy (0-3, 0-2 frees), 15 D Molloy (0-3). Subs: N Gallagher for R Kavanagh (half time), P McBrearty (0-2) for C Toye (44 mins), A McFadden for Molloy (50 mins), M Reilly for O McNiallais (65 mins), D Walsh (0-1) for K Lacey (69 mins), L Keeney for M McElhinney (70 mins).
GALWAY: 1 M Breathnach; 2 D O'Neill, 3 F Hanley, 6 J Moore; 5 P Varley (0-1), 7 S Denvir, 4 J Duane; 21 T Flynn, 12 P Conroy (0-3); 10 G Sice (0-2), 15 J Kavanagh, 11 S Armstrong (0-1); 13 G Bradshaw, 14 M Martin (0-1), 22 E Concannon (0-3). Subs: A Tierney for F Hanley (10 mons inj), G O'Donnell for S Denvir (33 mins), D O'Connell for G Bradshaw, F Curran (0-1) for M Martin (53 mins), D Comer for G Sice (64 mins).
Referee: F Kelly (Longford).
