TG4 Ulster Ladies’ SFC final
Armagh 0-9 Donegal 1-10
DONEGAL reclaimed the Ulster senior title with a dogged but deserved four-point win over defending champions Armagh in Owenbeg yesterday.
Their lead was one point with six minutes remaining and with the clock ticking down as Armagh went in search of at least an equaliser, Donegal overturned possession leaving them with just over a minute to see out the game.
Not content with keeping ball, in the dying seconds, with Armagh stretched, substitute Ciara McGarvey, on the pitch less than a minute before, fired to the back of the net to seal a sweet victory.
Not many gave Donegal a chance of winning back the provincial crown they last held in 2019 and no doubt that was a motivating factor for Maxi Curran’s side.
With Niamh Hegarty and Tanya Kennedy back in the team for the first time this season, their experience was a major boost but Curran had a gameplan that saw them defend in numbers and attack with patience, led by brilliant captain and player of the match, Niamh McLaughlin.
Even when Armagh led with the game in the final quarter, having been two points down at half-time, Donegal kept calm.
The Tír Chonaill girls led 0-7 to 0-5 at half-time despite playing into a stiff north Derry breeze but it was Eve Lavery who got Armagh up and running in the second minute and when Aimee Mackin converted a free in the next minute it looked promising even at such an early stage for the defending champions.
The returning Niamh Hegarty opened Donegal’s account from a free in the fourth minute but a Mackin double, one from a free and a super effort from play, opened up a three-point advantage, 0-4 to 0-1 after 10 minutes.
However, with Armagh lacking urgency, Donegal took control and reeled off six unanswered points to open up a three-point lead themselves, 0-7 to 0-4, Karen Guthrie, Hegarty (free), Katie Dowds and Katie Long, and an Amy Boyle Carr double doing the damage.
Armagh ended a 20-minute barren spell with a Mackin free in the dying seconds to leave two between them at the break, 0-7 to 0-5.
That was the same half-time margin when the sides met earlier in the championship in the group stages before Armagh went on to win by eight points, so the Orchard fightback was expected.
Their captain Mallon made it a one-point game from a free immediately after the resumption but Long popped up for her second point of the game to double her side’s lead once more, 0-8 to 0-6.
Armagh’s grip on the game strengthened and three in-a-row from Niamh Coleman, substitute Caitriona O’Hagan and a Mallon free saw them take the lead again for the first time since the sixth minute.
Mallon’s free, a result of a foul on Mackin, came at a cost with the Shane O’Neill’s player forced off through injury.
Donegal, now chasing the game, came close to the game’s first goal but Anna Carr did very well to deny Hegarty whose shot looked to be heading for the top corner.
The same player did level the game for the third time in the 52nd minute before Karen Guthrie kept her cool and used all her experience to send over a 54th-minute free to put Donegal ahead by one, 0-10 to 0-9.
There was still six minutes remaining and Armagh tried to break down the Donegal defence but they stood strong and McGarvey’s last gasp put the icing on the cake to seal a fifth ever Ulster title for her side.
Armagh A Carr; S Grey, C McCambridge, L Kenny; G Ferguson, L McConville, C Towe; N Coleman (0-1), E Lavery (0-1), B Mackin, A Mackin (0-4, 0-3f), E Druse; N Marley, K Mallon (capt) (0-2f), A McCoy
Subs C O’Hagan (0-1) for Lavery (39), L Kenny for N Marley (46), N Reel for A Mackin (46), B Hendrix for C Marley (54), T Grimes for Druse (55)
Donegal C Friel; N Carr, A Temple Asoko, N McLaughlin; A Boyle Carr (0-2), K Guthrie (0-2, 0-1f), T Hegarty; N Hegarty (0-3, 0-2f), N McLaughlin (capt); R Rodgers, K Long (0-2), K Dowds (0-1); E Gallagher, K Herron, T Kennedy
Subs S McGroddy for Long (46), S White for Rodgers (52), C McGarvey (1-0) for K Guthrie
Referee David Hurson (Monaghan)
