Rory Roars His Charges to Opening League Win

So here we go again - after the shadow boxing of the McKenna Cup, the football fare moved up a notch this weekend with competitive action getting underway beneath the lights of MacCumhaill Park. A local derby led to a bumper crowd coming through the turnstiles and the cracking atmosphere made for a fantastic’s night entertainment.

It'’s certainly a great boost getting off to a winning start and Rory Gallagher will be fairly pleased with how his new charges performed. Donegal’s recent Division One campaigns have been stop-start by their nature, culminating in two final day shoot outs – one going our way in 2012, the other resulting in relegation from the top tier the following year. A more consistent run this time around with no demotion threat would be on the new manager's wishlist.

There was a feeling of new era about last night with Rory donning his florescent Bainisiteoir bib although we were all transported into the past and back to last September after only a few minutes with Paul Durcan’s very first kick-out going straight to the opposition full forward. Thankfully there was no resulting goal but the collective intake of breath around the ground was one we could have done without. Durcan tried another short kick to Mark McHugh and both Rory and his assistant Jack Cooney went onto the field to speak to the big Four Masters netminder – we’re going long.

Gallagher could be heard shouting ‘tight field’ to his wing backs and wing forwards as Durcan stood over his restarts; the idea being that they are to stay narrow and leave space on the wings before making what they will hope will be an unopposed run towards the ball.

That wasn’t the only shout coming from the Donegal touchline and anyone who hadn’t seen the Belleek native’s management style in action up until now were given the full treatment last night. He is constantly onto his players, both encouraging and chastising but always wanting more. Gallagher has a presence about him on the sideline and appears to be totally focused on whats in front of him and very confident in his own abilities – a fascinating character to observe.

Donegal’s performance initially was patchy to say the least, looking sluggish and lethargic in the second quarter. Whether there was a method to the madness it’s hard to know but Donegal were setup very conservatively in the first half and didn’t run at the Oakleaf defence too often. Patrick McBrearty was the lone attacker with Michael Murphy stationed at midfield. Hugh McFadden was a late change to the named line-up and he was perched between the full back line and midfield and carried a huge amount of ball in the opening period. A comfortable footballer with plenty of ability, the Kilybegs man doesn’t yet have the raw power in his legs and with Odhran MacNiallais struggling somewhat to get into the game in the first half, Donegal were stuck in second gear for spells.

Derry on the other hand ran incessantly at their opponents’ rearguard and got plenty of joy in taking scores and drawing frees, with Mark Lynch punishing any misdemeanours. The visitors were deservedly in front at the change of ends and it was going to need a response from Donegal after the break to turn around a three-point deficit.

The response duly came and the catalyst was Martin McElhinney; on his introduction he reduced the deficit almost immediately with a well taken point but it was his overall directness and the injection of pace he provided, in contrast to McFadden’s calm and languid style that turned the tide his team’s way. His Creeslough colleague in midfield, Christy Toye, came into the game much more and with MacNiallais and Neil Gallagher getting through trojan work around the middle, Donegal moved through the gears.

Perhaps, similarly to last year’s championship, that will be the template; get parity or close to it around the middle sector to begin with before unleashing fresh runners in the second half and consequently redeploying Murphy to the edge of the square. Derry’s first half performance helped the script as they put so much effort in they appeared to have little left in the tank for the final quarter.

With Derry on the rack and Donegal hitting the front, a goal would have ended the contest; the opportunity arrived with Murphy being tugged back by Niall Holly in the box. We were again brought back to a past All Ireland disappointment as Michael’s kick thundered off the crossbar, just like in Breffni Park almost five years ago. He followed that misfortune up with another a minute later, as an attempt at a point came back off the upright and you started to wonder if it was going to be one of those nights. The penalty was soft to a certain extent so maybe it was poetic justice although any logical thinking regards referring decisions has to be tempered with the fact that the man in the middle was our old friend from Sligo, Mr Marty Duffy.

It was time for MacNiallais to put his mark on proceedings and when he was put in the clear by Toye he fired the ball low into the net, a strike that had a fair bit of frustration behind it. That made up for the spot kick miss and from then on Donegal hit for home. Despite an opening or two for Brian McIver’s side, they were unable to get within striking distance and scores from Martin Reilly and McBrearty put a seal on a hugely impressive second half display.

McBrearty took home the man of the match award from Setanta television and it could, indeed should, be the start of a big year for the Kilcar man. Having been a teenage prodigy for so long, the time has come for Patrick to become one of Donegal’s main men. He has all the ability and while he is already a highly rated inter-county performer, he can get to another level. Some of his finishing last night was out of the top drawer while his ball-winning was excellent.

The fine scores from distance that McBrearty, Reilly and Toye registered showed that Donegal are well able to score from distance but it is still a source of frustration for many that the team remains a bit shot-shy at times and this has been the case for a number of years. We’re used to seeing patient build-up with an emphasis on waiting for the right opportunity but at times last night players just had a go when they found a yard of space and the results was some wonderful point taking – let’s hope we see more of that.

Whenever a new manager comes in, those players that were previously on the fringes often stake a claim for a more central role. Martin Reilly is a case in point and he did his chances no harm with an excellent shift of work last night and capped his display with two points from play. Reilly and late substitute Darach O’Connor are fast, nippy alternatives in the full forward line compared to the brute ball-winning power of McBrearty, Murphy and Colm McFadden; it will be interesting to see how Rory assimilates his forward line over the coming league games.

Next up its The Dubs and a first return to Headquarters since that day of devastation in September. Our last meeting with the cosmopolitans of course brings to mind much more joyous memories and despite a defeat to Cork today, expect a tough battle this coming Saturday night. Dublin will surely include some more of their front line players than what took the field at Pairc Ui Rinn this afternoon and it has all the makings of another exciting encounter.

Double Dream Dies for Dún na nGall

It was supposed to be our greatest day but it couldn't have turned out any worse. A devastating double defeat for Donegal, with both minors and seniors falling short and it is not a nice feeling waking up the day after an All-Ireland Final defeat.

Leading into the game, Donegal seemed to hold all of the aces and in truth if the teams were taking to the field every day this week, you’d back Donegal every time. On the day Kerry were better – but every other day Donegal would be better. Kerry were depending on keeping the game tight and hoping that their opponents would under-perform and that is exactly what happened.

The verve and brio usually associated with the team, illustrated so perfectly in the semi final, was absent and the players seemed nervy, possibly struggling to cope with the expectation heaped upon them. Jim McGuinness though is the master at preparing for such situations, getting the heads right, so for his Donegal team to be so out of sorts is unusual. For it to happen on the biggest day of the year is tragic as the team will know today as they make the long trip home that they left a second title behind them.

Kerry did what they had to do in that they retained a defensive shape as much as they could but in truth they didn’t out-think or outfox Donegal. The Kingdom’s midfield pair of David Moran and Anthony Maher were both excellent and had a great battle with Neil Gallagher and Rory Kavanagh, who were two of the team’s better performers, especially in the first half. Gallagher had another fine match to cement his All Star selection but was unable to dominant aerially from kick outs such was the pressure exerted by the Kerry duo.

Leo McLoone was fantastic throughout, incessantly running at the opposition defence looking for gaps. Leo is often the player who makes way in the third quarter but that it was Ryan McHugh and not the Glenties man who made way at this juncture of the game spoke volumes of his display.

Of course it says plenty about McHugh as well. The young starlets of this team, who have brought so much to the fray this year – McHugh, Odhran MacNiallais and Darach O’Connor – all started yesterday but were all taken off. They have added so much freshness and skill to proceedings this year that without any of them playing like they can, the team’s capabilities were greatly reduced.

Going into the game, the talk was of Kerry’s primary threats of James O’Donoghue and Kieran Donaghy. O’Donoghue played most of his football out the field in a deeper role and while he saw a lot of the ball, by his own standards his impact was minimal. If someone had said during the week that O’Donoghue would be kept scoreless, many would have felt Kerry wouldn’t have had a prayer.

Donaghy made a nuisance of himself on the edge of the square and won some good possession. At times Gallagher was brought back to double up on him along with his marker Eamon McGee and overall his threat was handled well.

Despite a horrendous start, Donegal were calm and composed and slowly but surely grinded Kerry down in the first half. It was fascinating to watch as the system clicked into action; there was a strange subdued atmosphere in Croke Park for much of the first half – there seemed a certain inevitability to every attack and with Donegal level by half time things looked fairly good although there were a few too many chances wasted.

One feature of play yesterday was the amount of times Donegal players ran into groups of Kerrymen without support runners in tow; players were isolated as the ball was stripped off them and gobbled up by hungry defenders.

The second half followed suit; Donegal not playing particularly well but not panicking and happy knowing that their game plan would see them home.

Then came the match and season defining moment.

However bad the rest of us feel today, it will be nothing compared to Paul Durcan. The big man is one of the key reasons why Donegal made it this fair in the first place and has every chance of collecting a second All Star award next month.

With the game delicately poised, Durcan weighed up his options to set Donegal on the attack again. Whether the clash of jersey colours played its part in the next few seconds or the strong sunlight shining into the Hill was a factor, either way the ball ended up in the grateful hands of Donaghy who finished simply, although his task was made easier with the big keeper going to ground too quickly.

It was a horrible moment for Papa. Every player at every level, indeed everyone in every walk of life makes mistakes. Such are the perils of being a goalkeeper; those mistakes are magnified and are usually punished.

The stadium was stunned, Kerry fans rejoiced, they knew this was a huge moment. There was still time for a comeback but a goal at that stage, in a tight, dour contest was massive. As it turned out, it decided the All Ireland.

Durcan was rattled and his next few kick outs went straight down the middle, he wasn’t going to chance anything other than a long punt. This led to fifty-fifty ball being contested and each time Kerry won possession it was another chance gone for Donegal to eat into the lead.

There was one last chance with that frantic scramble at the death as the ball came off the post instead of finding the net and salvaging a replay. That was that.

Nobody from Donegal knew what to do after an All Ireland defeat as it hadn’t happened before; so people ended up doing the same as they did two years ago and had the craic. It was gone after five a.m. this morning in Donegal’s home from home on Harcourt Street, Dtwo, when Jimmy’s Winning Matches was played three times in a row and it was belted out with gusto and pride just as it always is – legendary man, legendary support.

Some of the players joined the fun too and mingled with the faithful and the main thing now that will be on their minds and all of ours is will Jimmy be winning matches next year?

His four year plan is complete, will there be a fifth? Will the great progress made by the minor team under Declan Bonner’s tutelage entice Jim to stay on, knowing that there is quality in that squad that could make the step up to senior?

We don’t know when these questions will be answered but obviously we’re all hoping for a yes. 

Donegal will be back - and hopefully Jim will too.

Dún na nGall Left With Much to Ponder

Another defeat for Donegal and just like last year the team are facing into a final day shoot out hoping to avoid relegation. Right from the start of this campaign Jim McGuinness’ focus has been on Tyrone in May and what happened before then mattered little. However the manner of the defeats to Cork last week and Mayo today have raised a lot of questions and some of those will need to be answered against Dublin in a fortnights time.

The team’s passing, particularly in the final third, was again very disappointing as it was in Pairc Ui Rinn last week. Bursting out from the back isn’t a problem, the team are so in tune with each other and know how to create overlaps and knit passing patterns together in order to turn defence into attack. They are struggling to find their forwards though and therefore are not scoring heavily. The ball going in isn’t favouring the attackers and Mark McHugh in particular epitomised the wayward distribution today with some terrible passes.

A fourth defeat of the campaign wont do much harm psychologically as it reminds the players that the core values of work ethic, honesty, effort and concentration that reaped such dividends last year must be maintained to have a chance of more success. Decision making today looked on the lazy, lethargic side and against a Mayo team with a point to prove that was never going to be good enough.

The home side and their supporters were well up for today’s game and they’ll be delighted to get one over on their All-Ireland conquerors. They have learned some tricks from that day in September too - it was interesting to see them having players run across Colm McFadden’s line of vision as he took his frees.

They also learned their lesson as regards marking duties with Michael Murphy well marshalled today, often by more than one defender. Last year this ploy was employed by most teams and Colm McFadden was the one who benefited due to the extra space. Teams are now trying to double up on both Murphy and McFadden, a risky tactic in a sense but if Donegal’s other players don’t step up to the plate then it’s one that can work. Others did get on the score sheet today but no one consistently offered help to the two main men up front with even Patrick McBrearty, fresh from a stunning midweek display for the U21s, looking a little off colour.

Towering midfielder Barry Moran was given the man of the match award and he had a huge influence on proceedings today. He caught numerous kick outs and as a result was the launch pad for many of his side’s attacks. What was frustrating from a Donegal perspective was that Paul Durcan kept hitting his kick outs down on top of Moran. It’s a basic enough tenet of football that if a midfielder is dominating then you try to keep the ball away from him. Granted Neil Gallagher was marking him and that’s who Durcan looks for on most of his kick outs but with Moran in such form it would have been better to try to find Rory Kavanagh.

Neil McGee hobbled off early in the second half and his importance to the team was illustrated in his absence. The defensive shape all but disappeared without the Gweedore man at full back and with regular centre back Karl Lacey also missing these days, there was a lack of solidity in the Donegal rearguard.

Donegal received a third major setback soon after; following the injury to McGee and Michael Conroy’s goal, Anthony Thompson was shown the line after he received his second booking. Marty Duffy issued plenty of yellow cards today and it was clear early on that there wouldn’t be thirty players left on the field at the end such was the booking rate. A lot will be made of the fact that its Donegal’s third double yellow red card this year and maybe the reputation they have gained as a systematic fouling team is starting to have an effect on referees. Its another thing that will have to be looked at by the management.

Indeed the team are giving away quite a number of scoreable frees, something which didn’t happen last year. Think of the big games last year - Colm Cooper, Bryan Sheehan, the O’Connors, Donncha and Cillian - all free takers with their respective teams but none of them scored too much against Donegal. Today Mayo’s O’Connor ended up with five points, four of them from placed balls.

Its not all doom and gloom of course and the McGuinness mantra of May 26th has to be kept in mind also. Colm McFadden is improving with every outing and today looked the sharpest he’s been this year so far. An incident at the end of the game highlighted another positive - the players hate losing and want to get back to where they were last year. An off the ball altercation involving Mark McHugh and Donal Vaughan led to a few players getting tangled up with the usual shouldering and pushing and shoving; but it was the normally mild mannered Frank McGlynn who got really riled up and he wasn’t going to let any of his team-mates be pushed around. He was worked up and it shows that there’s still plenty of fire in the bellies of these players. They’ll need to show that and more if they are to beat the Dubs and the drop when they welcome the table toppers to Ballybofey in two weeks time.

Murphy Magic not quite enough for Donegal

Michael Murphy put in another Tour de Force display at Croke Park on Saturday night but Donegal still came up short in a cracking encounter with Kildare.

No one really knew what to expect from the All Ireland Champions such was their truncated beginning to the season. They started brightly but Kildare soon began to dominant and without Neil Gallagher in the side we struggled for primary possession around the middle. They racked up some fine scores, with newcomers Niall Kelly and Daniel Flynn catching the eye. The 'home' side led by five and held all the aces at half time - well all but one Ace.

In the second half Michael took over and almost single-handedly got his side back into it. He played a roving role that saw him pop up just about everywhere on Jones Road and he finished the night with 0-9 to his name.

With Colm McFadden going off early with a hamstring injury Murphy took on extra responsibility with young Ross Wherity helping him out in the forward line. The Eunan’s newcomer showed well for the ball and kept trying but his slight frame was no match for Kildare’s physicality. Improvement in this area though and Wherity will see more and more game time - no doubt Jim already has Adam Speer working with Wherity, and indeed the other new panellists, and they will only get bigger and stronger.


Having Wherity up front was in stark contrast to Kildare who had the man mountain figure of Tomas O’Connor who got a lot of joy in his full forward role for the Lilywhites; both McGee’s had a go at marking him with neither faring too well. The big man up front is certainly one way to beat this Donegal team so expect to see teams employing this tactic quite often.

O’Connor got his side’s first goal after touching home a rebound off the post, bringing back memories of the infamous square ball in the 2011 Quarter Final.
The next key moment of the game was the second Kildare major and unfortunately it had a bit of infamy about it as well. The country’s All Star goalkeeper had one of those howlers that every net-minder dreads. A complete misjudgement of his positioning with the ball in flight and all Paul Durcan could do was help it into the goal. He’s not the All Star No1 for nothing though and he has barely put a foot wrong in the last few years so we certainly won’t hold it against the big Four Masters man. Moments later Kildare tested him again to see how his nerves were with a high ball in on top of him but he dealt with it well.

After Murphy, McHugh et al had done their bit in dragging Donegal back into the game, the goal concession halted the momentum and Kildare had enough to hold on for the win. All in all, the boys will be relatively happy with their performance; they showed plenty of heart and hunger in the second half when the game could have easily gone out of sight. Donegal lost their first two league games of last year’s campaign and they wont want that to happen again – this weekend’s clash with Down in Ballybofey is a crucial tie.

McFadden will most likely be missing for that game and his scoring threat will need to be replicated by Patrick McBrearty. The Kilcar man did well on Saturday but more is needed from the young sharp shooter. His potential as a minor had him on the radar for so long and there is huge expectation on his shoulders. Many parts of his game are in place and he sees plenty of the ball every day he plays but if he could get on the scoresheet more regularly and add that killer instinct that all great forwards have, he can push onto another level.

McBrearty was involved in one the scores of the game, a point started and finished in Kilcar. Substitute Mark McHugh, who made a big difference when introduced, played a ball down the channel for McBrearty. He immediately dinked it up into his hands, found McHugh again with a clever pass inside and McHugh slotted it over.

This had come just a couple of minutes after probably the game’s best score and no prizes for guessing who it came from. Michael won a ball 50 yards out, drove into a gap and motored past two defenders. One managed to stay with him though and threw himself at what he thought was going to be a shot on goal. Instead Michael, showing wonderful awareness and poise, took another solo, left the Kildare man on the floor and stroked it over. It was class personified and conveyed everything that’s good about Murphy.

It strange how such a wonderful individual display can lead to many viewing it as a negative but that’s often what happens, the main argument being that the team relies too much on the Maestro and if he wasn’t there we wouldn’t have a chance.

Sure why wouldn’t we rely on him? The boy is a genius.

Every effort should be made to get him on the ball and let him dictate proceedings. His outing on Saturday night was reminiscent of his display against Dublin in last year’s league; he got injured that night and missed three months of action yet Donegal won the games they played for that period and kept on winning upon his return.

Barcelona don’t get criticised for Lionel Messi scoring almost a half of his team’s goals. Their approach is to keep possession and when the moment is right get him on the ball in the final third and he does the rest. Sounds like a good plan to me.

For Michael Messi Murphy it’s no different. Gaels everywhere should just sit back and enjoy watching an artist at work. He’s the best player ever to pull on a Donegal shirt, a once in a generation talent and he’s an All-Ireland winning Captain. And thank God he’s ours!

Dubs take the points

Two late goals from Dublin made last night’s encounter look lop-sided but Donegal can be fairly satisfied with their display; with fifteen minutes to go we were right in it.

Similar to last year’s semi final, it was the departure of one of our star performers that ultimately cost us. Then it was Karl Lacey, and to this day there remains that ‘what if’ for the Donegal faithful as to what would and could have happened had he stayed on. Another knee injury last night, this time to Michael Murphy, and when he left the field our chances of a win seemed to go with him.

Prior to that he was once again turning on a master class. Much has been made of the decision to play him in a deep role last August and on the day it didn’t really work. This time around though the country got to see Michael in one of his bravado, tour de force performances. He was catching ball at full forward, winning frees out the field, driving through the Dublin defence - by the time he departed he had notched 0-6 leading to him receiving the man of the match gong from broadcaster Setanta. Its not often that we see a player on the losing side pick up the award so it goes to show how good he was going.

He kicked two from play and his place kicking was excellent, indeed it is encouraging to see him kicking most of his frees off the ground; it’s a dying art in the game and a huge asset to any side who possess someone so proficient in the skill.

He has now racked up 2-19 in his four matches since returning from injury, although whether or not the fifth game will be against Armagh in two weeks is a serious doubt with his knee not looking in good shape when he was forced off. You could see he was revelling in being on the big stage and almost had to be dragged off the pitch by the Donegal doctor. The big players are born to play on the sacred turf in Drumcondra and with Michael in form like this it shouldn’t be too long until we’re back on Jones Road.

With Michael off the field, Paul Durcan’s attempt to mimic Stephen Cluxton’s All Ireland Final heroics didn’t quite work out and he had to endure a long trot back to his goal with the jeers of Dublin fans ringing in his ears. Between the sticks though he had a fine game, stopping three goal chances - the first effort from Eamon Fennell in the first half drew an incredible reflex stop from the big Four Masters man. Indeed he was unfdortuante to see Diarmuid Connolly's late effort squirm past him after another good stop.

While Dublin did manage to post a 2-16 score line, four or five cheap points were conceded by Donegal from turnovers around midfield. After hard work in stopping a Dublin attack or winning a dirty ball in the middle, on numerous occasions this good work was quickly undone and that was particularly frustrating.

Also a worry was our distribution. Dublin kept a sweeper back in front of the full forward line and yet time and again we kicked the ball directly to him. We’re normally more shrewd and clever when faced with this and should have been recycling the ball and probing for an opening. Our first three attacks all ended up being kicked straight to a sky blue jersey and this was quickly followed by three balls dropped short into the hands of Cluxton.

Patrick McBrearty did catch one lovely ball over his head in the second half and forced a smart stop from Cluxton; that was our second goal chance of the game. We saw last year how crucial Colm McFadden’s missed goal chance proved to be and unfortunately again we failed to take any.

Dublin looked impressive on the night, that bit sharper and more clinical as a unit than us. The movement of their forward line was especially eye catching - always available, always running onto the ball at speed and able to take on their man. While Donegal struggled to find their inside men with wayward passing, Dublin made theirs stick.

If you just saw the final score from the game you’d think we’d be on the receiving end of quite a beating but the two late goals put an unfair gloss over proceedings; we didn’t deserve to come out on the wrong side by nine points. The game plan that Jim had devised to beat Dublin last August was working in many ways last night. He has talked since about his bigger men playing around the middle and breaking forward at pace.
Michael did this and even Christy Toye appeared to be finding a bit of form using his height and strength to good effect in the second half. He wasn’t suffocated by blue jerseys as he was last time out and found a lot more time on the ball. He was about to be taken off at one point but slotted over a score, forcing Jim to quickly abandon the switch for a while.

Another good display was that of Leo McLoone. Much has been made of the man absent from the No 7 jersey but we knew all along we had a man good enough to replace him. He’s still not quite back to his best following his injury plagued year in 2011 but after a shaky opening quarter last night Leo showed signs that he’s going in the right direction. He scored a fine point in the first half as did his club mate on the other wing Anthony Thompson. That duo, along with Lacey, drove forward brilliantly and caused real problems for Pat Gilroy’s men. Full back Neil McGee even got in on the act, helping the Donegal revival early in the second period.

Jim would have felt last night that it was worth a chance having a go at Dublin, with a home match to come against Armagh on Easter Sunday, Donegal should have their destiny in their own hands - depending on results in Castlebar and Killarney today a win should hopefully be enough to keep us in Division One.
Once the Orchard meeting is out of the way its full speed ahead to Breffni in late May. The aim will be to get back to Croke Park in August and who knows, the Dubs could be waiting for us again.