Michael Murphy Sports & Leisure Donegal SFC final: Glenswilly 1-10 Kilcar 0-12
Glenswilly and the magnificent Michael Murphy ripped the formbook to shreds to record a narrow but richly-deserved victory over a wasteful Kilcar side in treacherous conditions at Sean MacCumhaill Park yesterday.
Never has a team of such proven championship pedigree been so heavily written off.
Available at crazy odds of 6/1 to win, there will be a few people around Glenswilly celebrating more than a Donegal SFC victory this week.
Once again the iconic Michael Murphy and Neil Gallagher walked tall when it really mattered.
And Glenswilly secured their victory with simple route one football as Murphy hit the crucial goal after just nine minutes after a direct ball in from Gallagher.
An emotional Gallagher struggled to sum up just how sweet a win this was for his club.
“It is hard to put it into words how much this win means to us after 2011 and 2013, but it tops the lot,” he said.
“We had so many problems to overcome this season with loads of injuries but there is a great spirit in the Glen.
“Once again Michael Murphy does what he always does and showed just what a really great player he is.
“Kilcar really put it up to us in the second half and had a few wides but our boys hung in very well.
“This is truly a very special win for us as we had so many obstacles to overcome to get there”.
Murphy had a huge height advantage over Kilcar full-back Conor McShane and some were wondering why midfielder Ciaran McGinley was not switched back to mark the Donegal skipper on the edge of the square.
But that may have been a case of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ against a Glenswilly side who had a swathe of six-footers across their 45-metre line.
Kilcar also had their chances of carving out at least a draw but they kicked five wides from scorable positions, while a last-gasp Paddy McBrearty free just fell short.
Murphy’s early goal set the pattern for the rest of a jittery first half in which Kilcar repeatedly struggled to break down a formidable seven-man wall across the 45 metre line.
After a few early skirmishes, Murphy deftly nudged McShane before gathering a long ball from Gallagher and firing his shot to the net.
It took a shell-shocked Kilcar 13 minutes to register their next score, a pointed free from McBrearty.
Conor Doherty further narrowed the gap with a soaring first point from play before Brian Farrelly replied in kind for Glenswilly.
The remainder of the half was a cat-and-mouse affair, with the mighty Murphy and McBrearty swapping points to leave Glenswilly leading to 1-7 to 0-6 at half-time.
Kilcar came out early for the second half and stood in the rain for around four minutes before Glenswilly appeared to loud boos from frustrated Kilcar fans.
The rain got even worse but Kilcar narrowed the gap to a point after two quick scores, the first from from a McBrearty free before the 38-year-old Michael Hegarty knocked over a great effort.
Glenswilly threw on the mercurial Ciaran Bonner in the second half and he showed all of his experience by fisting a point.
Ryan McHugh, who hit one superb point, and McBrearty were off target as they tried to narrow the gap, while the winners could only register one point in the last 20 minutes.
Like true champions, however, they held on and showed why they should never have been so deeply doubted.
