ON SUNDAY morning, my two-year-old climbed up onto my lap and said: “Daddy, nothing is impossible.”
It was a strange thing for a toddler to say, even if it was then confirmed by my five-year-old that she was repeating some statement made in an episode of her beloved Peppa Pig. Nonetheless, it got me thinking about Fermanagh, their progress under Pete McGrath and how a confident mindset might just see them upset the odds in Ballybofey and record a result that would finally set the Ulster Championship alight.
At various times during Sunday’s clash in Ballybofey it looked like we were going to be treated to a thriller that would go down to the wire. However, a combination of valuable experience and ruthless finishing won the day for Donegal.
Where it was lost for Fermanagh can also be explained by the previous sentence. As we look back on a game where numerical advantage counted for nothing and an ability to finish was everything, here are my five main talking points.
1 Fermanagh needed to get the ball in quickly to get best out of Quigley
FERMANAGH didn’t make the extra man count.
You really wonder what Neil McGee was thinking when he lashed out as his act of indiscipline could have cost his team the game. It was a double-whammy in terms of a red card and a penalty but, on reflection, Fermanagh really needed to seize the initiative by converting the spot-kick on the verge of half-time.
A man down, it was clear Donegal would sit back even more, so the way Fermanagh would tweak things going forward was always going to be important. The signs were already there that Donegal were vulnerable to the diagonal ball into Sean Quigley.
Fermanagh needed to attack with better width in the second half to stretch Rory Gallagher’s men, and also kick the direct diagonal ball into Quigley just to mix things up a bit. The two decent balls into the big Roslea man were both won and a penalty and converted free came off them.
But he was more often out the field than on the edge of the square, which was hard to understand. Fermanagh were far too predictable in their play in the second half, running the ball into countless tackles which allowed Donegal’s counter-attacking game to come to the fore.
2 Defensive flaws let Ernemen down badly
ODHRAN Mac Niallis got the post-match plaudits after his two goals, which is hard to argue with. However, the players who should’ve been marked tighter were actually Donegal defenders.
Mac Niallis may have been at the end of the moves for the two goals but the catalyst for both majors was actually Frank McGlynn. Fermanagh played a very organised defensive game that started with serious pressing of the man in possession about 55 yards from the goal.
But their vulnerability became apparent when the Donegal runners coming from behind the ball weren’t tracked and forwards ended up marking forwards in the danger zone. This was a major problem for both goals. McGlynn was able to play a fabulous one-two and that took out about four Fermanagh defenders as Martin McElhinney gave a beautiful reverse pass to the maruading half-back.
McGlynn wasn’t tracked at all during the move. Fermanagh’s left half-forward Richie O’Callaghan was now picking up Mac Niallis and he was caught napping as the Donegal man got in behind him far too easy.
In the build-up to the second goal, McGlynn first played a one-two with Anthony Thompson and then another one-two with McElhinney. On both occasions he went past Fermanagh players who remained flat-footed and neither tracked nor checked his run.
Frank McGlynn and the two goals exposed a major flaw in the Fermanagh gameplan which was to blame for the two goals that swung the game in Donegal’s favour.
3 Fermanagh encounter a spot of bother
I REMEMBER scoring a penalty against Tyrone in the Ulster semi-final in 2003 to put us 1-5 to 1-4 ahead.
Due to an injury to John Devine, there had been a stoppage before I stepped up. I could see a few Tyrone defenders prowling around trying to figure out who’d be hitting the spot kick. I purposely didn’t go anywhere near the ball until the very last minute as I knew I’d be in for some ‘friendly banter’.
I’m sure Sean Quigley was the designated penalty-taker but the way both him and Tomas Corrigan were going, my immediate reaction was ‘Corrigan needs to hit this’. For a good minute, Quigley allowed to get himself involved in some verbals. It was a poor penalty.
Fermanagh had two goal chances and managed to take neither. Donegal had three and converted two.
4 McBrearty makes the difference for Donegal
DONEGAL just had more game-changers.
McGlynn, both McHughs, and Mac Niallis were all superb. Take the goals out of it and there were still moments of superb playmaking from Mac Niallis with diagonal kick-passing that had the Fermanagh sweeper in a spin.
But at perhaps the most important period of the game Patrick McBrearty was the man who stepped up. An off-colour Michael Murphy had just missed an easy free to open a two-point gap. With only a point between the sides and his team wobbling on the ropes, McBrearty won a ball out in front of Mickey Jones and the Fermanagh sweeper before being fouled. Breathing space.
In the next Fermanagh attack, the Donegal corner-forward tracked back and threw his body in to intercept a Ruairi Corrigan pass about 80 yards from his normal position. Just 35 seconds later the ball was in Chris Snow’s net and any chance of an upset was gone.
5 Plenty of things for Gallagher's team to work on
RORY Gallagher will be a happy man.
To win the game so convincingly despite being a man down and not be at your best is pleasing. When it emerged during the week that Michael Murphy wasn’t fully fit, I felt that if he was to play, full-forward was going to the position to best utilise him.
As it turned out, he played out the field and there is no doubt this proved counterproductive as Che Cullen not only nullified him, but also caused Donegal problems on the front foot for the first 35 minutes. Perhaps as the campaign progresses we will see him on the square more often as a proactive tactic rather than a reactive one.
Paul Durcan is a hard act to follow and Mark Anthony McGinley played really well. But Donegal are lacking a kick-out strategy that everyone understands. When Fermanagh put the full press on the Donegal kick-out in the first half, it resulted in two balls being kicked out over the line.
With Karl Lacey to come back into the team and with revenge firmly on their minds, Donegal and Monaghan are sure to serve up an epic battle that won’t be for the faint-hearted.
