Laois no Match for Ruthless Donegal

An emphatic Donegal put Laois to the sword this afternoon and in the process made it very clear that they intend to keep their stay in Division Two to one season. Despite the hosts looking clueless at times and unwilling to work as hard as their opponents, this was still a mightily impressive display from Jim McGuinness’ charges.

Particular pleasing was how they kept their foot on the throttle long after the result and the two league points had been secured. The game was effectively over just after the restart, thanks to Colm McFadden’s goal, but he and his team mates posted 0-13 in the remainder of the match.

The hosts started reasonably well and indeed may have come into this encounter thinking that there was a chance of an upset given that they frustrated Donegal for long periods the last time the sides met, in Carrick-on-Shannon last July. That was under previous manager Justin McNulty and while his spell wouldn’t be termed a success amongst the Laois faithful, he did make his team hard to beat. 

Now Tomas O’Flaharta has taken the reins with a stated mandate to bring positive football back to the O’Moore County - he has his work cut out going on today’s evidence. His team disappointed both from attacking and defensive perspectives; on numerous occasions in the opening period, Donegal created overlaps and were presented with four-on-three and five-on-three situations as the home defence looked a mess.

Odhran MacNiallais’ goal came from one such opportunity with Anthony Thompson making the incisive run from defence and after neat passing the Gaoth Dobhair man was on hand to palm the ball to the net. Even at that stage, the writing was on the wall for Laois.

Thompson was joined in many a raid forward by Neil McGee and Karl Lacey - both were operating in the full back line but bombed forward at will. Laois’ inability to cover the piercing runs from deep proved to be their downfall. It may be an unglamorous brief for a forward to track attacking forays from their markers but in the modern game it’s a must. With the runs not covered it led to some easy scoring chances for Donegal - almost all of their first half scores were from simple chances inside the 21-yard line.

The exceptions came from the right boot of Michael Murphy; firstly he nailed a 45' into the teeth of the wind and moments later he stroked over an absolutely majestic point. With Murphy having to stoop to collect an ever so slightly under hit pass, Frank McGlynn made a run off the shoulder for his captain - it seemed easier to offload to the marauding wing-back but instead Michael dummied to handpass and with his marker, along with everyone else in O’Moore Park, buying the dummy he split the posts from forty yards. He repeated the dummy trick late in the game to nonchalantly register his second score from play (and sixth in total), this time off his left peg.

Christy Toye came into the starting line-up before the throw-in in place of the hamstrung Darach O’Connor and he had a fine game operating at centre forward. He’s still as good as any at picking a pass and he distributed wonderfully throughout his time on the field, which was cut short after suffering a nasty gash to his face.

Another who has had his share of injury trouble is Mark McHugh but he looked back to his best today, covering the ground like only he can. He was in the thick of things at both ends of the field and got his name on the score sheet in the closing procession. He also shipped a ferocious hit after a frontal charge in the incident that led to Laois’ Denis Booth being shown a red card. Despite the lead being enjoyed by Donegal at the time, his team-mates were incensed at the challenge and weren’t slow in making their feelings known to Booth and his counterparts.

The younger McHugh, Ryan, played at corner back and acquitted himself well and it is an area that the team could do with some competition for places. Paddy McGrath is still a number of weeks away from seeing some action so its likely we'll see some more experimenting in the 2 and 4 jerseys in the next few games.

Debutant Hughie McFadden certainly put his hand up for some more game-time, scoring a brace of points after joining the action in the second half. McFadden was one of the stars of last year’s county championship, playing an integral role in Kilybegs’ march to the final. He can operate around midfield or on the edge of the square so it will be interesting to see how he develops in a senior jersey over the coming months.

Having two away fixtures to start with, Donegal knew a win or two from those would put them in pole position for promotion. They made a big statement today and the other teams won’t relish taking on the McGuinness juggernaut when its in this kind of form. Galway are next up in Salthill next weekend and after their defeat to Meath today they wont be looking forward to seeing another team in green and gold.

Dún na nGall back on track as Mayo lie in wait

Donegal are back in the last eight and while they didn’t go the route they wanted the main thing is they were in the pot for the draw last Saturday night; as Jim said afterwards “we’re back were we would have been minus the cup.” We’re still the holders of the other cup and its up to Mayo now to take it off us. It’ll be a titanic clash, without doubt the tie of the round and one game that everyone will want to see.

Saturday was a typically nervy encounter, a real do-or-die feel to it early on with both teams being ultra-cautious and players desperate not to make mistakes. The downpours that hit Carrick in the hours before throw-in made for a greasy surface and added to the conservative nature of the play in the opening exchanges. This mind set was transferred to the crowd with the tight surroundings making for a claustrophobic cauldron. Carrick was a far from ideal venue as regards traffic, ticketing or ease of access but for atmosphere, a packed house at a small venue makes for a great noise.

 

It wasn’t just on the field and in the stands where the tension was evident, on the sideline Jim and Rory were up for the battle as well as their set-to with Justin McNulty and Fergal Byron clearly demonstrated – this game meant a lot, this title that Donegal are defending means a lot and they were hurting from the nature of their no-show in the Ulster Final.

The match took quite a while to settle down and the first huge roar from the green and gold contingent was provided by a booming score from the right by Michael Murphy. A few moments earlier he had hit Laois newcomer O’Carroll with a shuddering shoulder as he and his team set the tone for what would be a dogfight for the most part.

Michael had spoken midweek of righting the wrongs from Clones and with so many players needing to atone for abject personal displays, there was a real desire to make a statement. Neil McGee was one such man, coming in for a bit of a roasting against Conor McManus the previous week he was in no mood for a repeat performance. Composed at the back, he also drove forward on numerous occasions capping an excellent display with a surging run and point near the end. Paddy McGrath alongside him in the full back line again was fantastic; the Ardara man just never seems to have a bad game.

McGee’s point came in a closing period where players were happy to take on the posts, with Colm McFadden and substitute Leo McLoone also registering white flags. This was a welcome development as at times the patience the team shows up front can lead to scoring opportunities being neglected. The team has been very economical this year, hitting very few wides but there may be point scoring chances being ignored also. A more progressive shooting policy in the early stages, as well the latter of the game, could serve us well next week as a good start could be crucial against Mayo.

The green and red are still smarting from the early onslaught their Hill 16 goal took in last year’s All-Ireland Final and will be hell-bent on making a quick start this time around; .if they were to fall behind again their minds would inevitably drift back to September. Conversely, Mayo getting ahead early would see Donegal chasing the game and as we saw against Monaghan that’s not an easy task to be faced with, especially for a team who will be playing for the third weekend in succession.

If Murphy’s score was the first big cheer of the day then Anthony Thompson made the Donegal roar reverberate around Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada with his majestic piece of skill in the second half. Following good work from Eamon McGee to dispossess Laois as they attacked, Thompson broke onto the loose ball on the right wing. Aware that he was about to be tackled by a blue jersey, instead of bending his back to pick up the ball he delightfully chipped it into his arms without breaking stride. He kept going up the wing before driving the ball across to McFadden who popped it over the bar. That put Donegal five points up and despite a Laois rally to close to within two they were on their way back to Croke Park.

As the scoreboard ticked over in the closing stages Rory Gallagher turned to the Laois bench and let out a roar of his own, conveying just how much this meant. Donegal were down after the Ulster Final but not out. True it was Laois in Carrick-on-Shannon whereas Mayo at Headquarters will be an entirely different challenge but at least we’re back on track. Next week will require every ounce of character and every fibre of energy to repeat last autumn’s result.

Although it was tough to accept a defeat in the provincial showpiece, in some ways it was great to be back on the road for a qualifier. Before Jim came along this was a road very well-travelled by the Donegal faithful and it brought back some good memories. Of course our last sojourn through the back door ended on that fateful day in South Armagh three years ago. That was a seminal moment in the history of Donegal football – from the dying embers of that day came an All-Ireland winning team. Only time will tell whether or not Carrick can mirror Cross in being a catalyst for something special. If the team can come up with a mammoth performance and win on Sunday next, Carrick will also live long in the memory.

Donegal beaten at their own game....

Donegal were served a dose of their own medicine today as they ran into a blue and white Laois wall at O’Donnell Park. For the majority of the game they could find little or no way through the O’Moore rearguard while at the same time leaving plenty of room for the visitors at the back and they took full advantage. If ever a scoreline gave a false impression of proceedings the 2-9 to 2-6 total at the end did just that. It was flattering on Donegal who were never in the game at any stage.

Laois popped over some fine early scores, capitalising on a lethargic Donegal start, in what was a similar pattern to that of last year’s encounter in Portlaoise. On that day MJ Tierney led the way in the point scoring stakes, today though it was Ross Munnelly who produced some memorable points to set his team on their way.

A reshuffle before throw-in saw Neil Gallagher positioned on the edge of the square as Jim McGuinness set out his stall early. Long ball after long ball was pumped in on top of the Glenswilly man and while this had worked to good effect on many occasions during his club’s wonderful Championship campaign last year, it didn’t bear fruit today. Laois had a sweeper in front of him and unfortunately he saw more of the ball than Gallagher. At the other end though Laois’ midfielder-cum-full forward Padraig Clancy had an excellent day, scoring 1-1 and leaving his fingerprints over many of the visitors’ scores.

Parallels can certainly be drawn with last year when both these sides plied their trade in the second tier; then, as now, Laois looked to be flying at this time of year, beating Donegal and Derry among others on their way to promotion. However they flattered to deceive in the Championship and you’d certainly have to wonder about the training regimes of both teams at present.

Rory Gallagher spoke afterwards about how far behind Donegal are on other teams in relation to sharpness and fitness and the evidence was in plentiful supply today. The lads are still likely to be undergoing tough training sessions with emphasis on conditioning for the summer ahead rather than on attaining a certain level of sharpness and improving touch and control. Some of the heavy legs and rustiness that we saw during the McKenna Cup are still evident in some of the players.

As Down showed last week, the half back line dictates most of the play in modern Gaelic Games and while the Mournemen got a large number of scores from this unit, Donegal today couldn’t repeat the trick. The absence of Michael Murphy and Colm McFadden is being keenly felt at present; it was hoped that others amongst the forwards would be able to step up and fill the gap this hasn’t happened yet.

When the dynamic duo are in the side the whole focus of Donegal play is to stop the opposition scoring, turn over possession and get the ball into the inside line and they will do the rest. The ideas employed to cope with their absence aren’t quite coming off right now and the onus is on the half back line of Karl Lacey, Anthony Thompson and Leo McLoone to get forward and support. Today we saw this but it led to large gaps at the back and Laois were able to pick off scores at ease any time a Donegal move broke down.

Aside from the condition of the teams though and also the non-availablility of key players, overall today there were just too many unforced errors and too much sloppiness and this led to the huge eleven point lead that Laois enjoyed at one stage. The team stuck at it though and kept the effort up and were eventually rewarded with a couple of goals, even though the first appeared to have stayed on the line rather than rolling over it.

Young Martin Reilly did well throughout as did the energizer bunny that is Mark McHugh. These two, along with Paddy McGrath and Ryan Bradley, put in a Trojan amount of work but unfortunately too many of their team mates did not reach the required level of performance.

While the league position we find ourselves in and the general level of display is disappointing, the most worrying aspect of today’s game was the sight of Lacey hobbling off with what could be a reoccurrence of the knee injury he sustained at Croke Park last August. There’s been no update as of yet on what the injury is but he is certainly in the indispensable category and it would be a huge blow if he were to spend some time on the treatment table.

The mini break that now takes place in the league should allow Donegal to ease down on the heavy training and get back to achieving a better level of performance. That will most definitely be needed as we face into a daunting set of fixtures against Cork, Kerry, Mayo and Dublin. The next three weeks will be critical in the team’s 2012 development and will have a big baring on what division we’ll be playing our league football in next year. The Messiah has work to do.