Sport

Three sent off as Donegal turn it on

A physical game in which three players were sent off and eight others were shown the yellow card overshadowed Donegal's win over…

Mon Nov 27 2000 - 00:00

A physical game in which three players were sent off and eight others were shown the yellow card overshadowed Donegal's win over Louth at Ballyshannon yesterday. It also undermined the superb play of their forwards, all of whom scored from play.

High tackles and off-the-ball incidents were quite common as Westmeath official Paul McCann struggled to control this game.

By half-time Louth were down to 14 players. Mark Stanfield was dismissed in the 20th minute after a second yellow card. Louth led briefly with two Stanfield pointed frees, but Donegal's excellent full forward Adrian Sweeney ended their early promise. Winning the ball above full back Denis Reilly, Sweeney fired home two fine goals in 60 seconds and from that eighth minute on Donegal looked very comfortable, leading by seven points at one stage.

Four more frees from Louth, three by Christy Grimes, and an opportunist Seamus O'Hanlon goal after 27 minutes kept Louth well in contention, just four points behind (2-7 to 1-6) at half-time.

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While Louth's finishing was dreadful, Donegal kicked points from all angles, Michael Hegarty becoming their sixth scoring forward by the 41st minute.

A high tackle by Stephen Melia on John Gildea saw him sent off after 56 minutes, while Donegal's Johnny McCafferty also redcarded shortly afterwards in what was a poor game overall.

Donegal: T Blake; E Doherty, M Crossan, N McGinley (0-1); J Scanlon, R Sweeney, D Diver; J Gildea, B Monaghan; B Roper (0-1), M Hegarty (0-1), J Gallagher (0-4); A Gallagher (0-2), A Sweeney (2-3, one free), J McCafferty (0-1). Subs: P McGonagle (0-1) for Monaghan (inj 13 mins), S Carr for Scanlon (33 mins), K Winston for R Sweeney (half-time), S Friel for Roper (inj 56 mins).

Louth: C Nally; J Neary, D Reilly, P McGinnity; A Hoey, S Melia, S Gerard; K Reilly, M Farrelly (0- 1); C Grimes (0-4, three frees), S O'Hanlon (1- 0), M Stanfield (0-2, frees), D Reilly (0-1), A O'Neill, JP Rooney. Subs: C O'Hanlon (0-2, one free) for Grimes (42 mins), B Reilly for Rooney (50 mins), C Quinn for O'Neill (63 mins).

Referee: P McCann (Westmeath).