All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Qualifying round 4B:
Donegal 3-12 Galway 0-11
THE scoreboard made it look more comfortable than it actually was for Donegal on Saturday night.
Thirteen days after losing an Ulster final by a point, the 2012 All-Ireland champions delivered a slightly schizophrenic display in sealing their All-Ireland quarter-final place at the expense of a limited Galway side. At times, Donegal played some excellent stuff. At other times, they looked ragged and lethargic.
There were quite a few minuses for Rory Gallagher to grapple with ahead of this Saturday night’s mouth-watering encounter with Connacht champions Mayo. For starters, they have some troubling personnel issues. They could conceivably be facing Mayo’s prolific forward unit without two of their best defenders in Karl Lacey and Éamonn McGee.
Lacey didn’t feature in Donegal’s 10-point win over the Tribes men at the weekend after suffering a “collision injury” that cut short his Ulster final. A recurring ankle problem saw McGee replaced at the interval on Saturday evening.
In the first half, Neil McGee and Paddy McGrath were uncharacteristically tentative in minding Galway’s attacking duo Damien Comer and Danny Cummins, with the latter taking a black card for the team after 52 minutes.
For the majority of the first half, Galway found it relatively easy to punch holes in Donegal’s notoriously tight rearguard. All it took at times was one good overlapping run, engineered by either wing-back Liam Silke and Gareth Bradshaw, to create a scoring opportunity for the Connacht men.
Galway hit four unanswered points in the last nine minutes of the first half, the pick of which was Paul Conroy’s screamer from under the shadow of the Cusack Stand. Even Rory Gallagher acknowledged the Tribes men had Donegal’s “number” during that period and that they “couldn’t break them down”.
Indeed, boos rang out around Croke Park as Donegal engaged in a meandering two-minute spell of passive possession – between the 20th and 22nd minutes – that included 30 consecutive passes and which ended in a Galway turnover, a slick counter-attack and a converted Gary Sice free.
Galway should have been two in front after 43 minutes when Conroy scuffed a very scoreable free wide of Donegal’s posts. Up until the 59th minute, the deposed Ulster champions had amassed a meagre 1-9. In fact, Donegal didn’t register a single score between the 16th and 44th minutes.
However, long before Ryan McHugh’s stunning 60th minute major, Galway’s brittle self-belief was all too apparent. Level at the break, 1-4 to 0-7, their midfield and attack began to falter badly in the second half.
Kevin Walsh’s men trailed by just two points in the 58th minute, but Galway’s ineptitude in scoring positions was best summed up by Cathal Sweeney’s wild shot that should really have been converted.
Even during Donegal’s underwhelming periods on Saturday night, Galway never quite convinced and had clearly reached their ceiling in getting to the last 12 of the All-Ireland series. Donegal were a step up in class for them. Two scoring blitzes at either end of Saturday’s game were enough to see Donegal through.
The Ulster men made a sprint start, bagging 1-4 in the opening 16 minutes. In the final 11 minutes, they hammered 2-4 past their hapless opponents. It would be easy to pick holes in Donegal’s performance, but they showed admirable character and did play some brilliant football too.
Galway were in the ascendancy as the first half drew to a close, but Donegal showed true grit when the teams emerged for the second half. Despite early second half wides from Michael Murphy, Patrick McBrearty (free) and substitute Martin McElhinney, Donegal’s heads never dropped.
They showed they were up for the challenge too when Galway went ahead for the first time through an Adrian Varley point in the 42nd minute. And when Conroy missed a good chance seconds later, Donegal stepped on the accelerator and pummelled their opponents with some devastatingly direct football.
Man-of-the-match Colm McFadden and the irrepressible Odhrán Mac Naillais were the architects in Donegal’s impressive sprint for the line. By the 59th minute, Gweedore’s Mac Naillais had registered his third point of the day – all from play – and won what seemed like a thousand breaks from Galway’s kick-outs in the second half. Mac Naillais was at his languid, unhurried best on Saturday evening.
But if Mac Naillias was good, McFadden was even better. After a disappointing Ulster final, McFadden rediscovered his best form. He pulled the strings in a more withdrawn role on Saturday and, as soon as he slung over a beautiful point in the fifth minute, there was no stopping the St Michael’s clubman.
Not only did he score four points, McFadden had a hand in Donegal’s three goals. In the sixth minute, he burst clear of the Galway back-line and gift-wrapped an easy three-pointer for McBrearty.
Donegal’s second goal on the hour mark was pure class. McFadden sent in an inch-perfect high ball to Michael Murphy on the edge of the square and a deft flick from the Glenswilly attacker found the unmarked Ryan McHugh, who side-footed the ball home to put the game beyond Galway’s tenuous reach.
In the 68th minute, McFadden soloed through the Galway defence to send over his fourth point of the day – and there was still time for late substitute Christy Toye to ripple the net for a third time in injury-time. Again, it was McFadden behind it – a clever fist pass finding his club-mate, who had the entire goal to aim at.
Alongside McFadden and Mac Naillais, Ryan McHugh excelled under the breaks and was always an attacking threat. Murphy also showed his worth at full-forward for Donegal, with his catch and score in the 48th minute raising the greatest cheer of the evening.
Crucially, Anthony Thompson got invaluable game-time – particularly with Lacey and Éamonn McGee struggling to make Saturday’s Mayo clash. And while there may have been some raised eyebrows by the inclusion of Hugh McFadden and Éamonn Doherty from the start on Saturday evening against Galway, it was important for them they got the chance to acclimatise to Croke Park.
Donegal mightn’t have beaten Mayo last Saturday evening but, with the Galway game under their belts now, they have a better chance of beating them this Saturday evening.
MATCH STATS
Donegal: P Durcan; P McGrath, N McGee, É McGee; R McHugh (1-0), É Doherty, F McGlynn; N Gallagher, H McFadden; M O’Reilly, O Mac Niallais (0-3), M McHugh; P McBrearty (1-1), M Murphy (0-3, 0-2 frees), C McFadden (0-4, 0-1 free); Subs: M McElhinney for O’Reilly (h-t), A Thompson for E McGee (h-t), L McLoone (0-1) for McBrearty (55), C Toye (1-0) for H McFadden (68), David Walsh for
C McFadden (70); Black cards: P McGrath replaced by Declan Walsh (52).
Galway: B O’Donoghue; J Duane, F Hanley, C Sweeney; L Silke, G O’Donnell, G Bradshaw; F Ó Curraoin, T Flynn (0-1); G Sice (0-4 frees), P Conroy (0-1), M Lundy; A Varley (0-2), D Comer (0-1 free), D Cummins (0-1); Subs: S Walsh (0-1) for D Cummins (57), P McSweeney for P Conroy (57), P Óg Ó Gríofa for D Cummins (63), S Denvir for M Lundy (67), M Martin for T Flynn (69), E Tierney for G Sice (69).
Referee: E Kinsella (Laois)
Attendance: 25,665
