Football

Michael Murphy shines in Donegal's comfortable win over Cavan

Michaels, Murphy and Langan celebrate Donegal's victory Picture by Margaret McLaughlin
Michaels, Murphy and Langan celebrate Donegal's victory Picture by Margaret McLaughlin Michaels, Murphy and Langan celebrate Donegal's victory Picture by Margaret McLaughlin

Ulster Senior Football Championship preliminary round: Donegal 2-20 Cavan 1-15

BEFORE a ball was kicked in yesterday’s Ulster preliminary clash in Ballybofey, most observers suspected Donegal would progress to the quarter-finals – but few expected the gulf in class to be so stark.

Cavan may point to their impressive looking 1-15 haul as evidence to suggest they were in this game – but they probably wouldn’t believe it themselves.

Cavan were desperately disappointing. Despite raising the first green flag of the day after 16 minutes, they were blown away by their slick hosts.

Donegal could afford to miss a couple of gilt-edged goal chances in the first half, take the foot off the pedal in the second half and still cruise to an eight-point win.

How good Donegal actually are was hard to determine because of Cavan’s meek challenge.

Played in front of a disappointing 9,612 crowd, yesterday’s Ulster opener lacked a Championship edge from start to finish.

Cavan are by no means a physically imposing team – but they never put in many hits to test the resolve of their hosts.

In fact, Padraig Faulkner’s brave block to stop Patrick McBrearty from aiming for the posts towards the end of the first half stands out because there were so few examples of good defensive play from Cavan.

Donegal might have trailed 1-3 to 0-4 after the lively Caoimhin O’Reilly slotted home on 16 minutes for the visitors – but every time the home side crossed into Cavan territory they looked menacing.

The Cavan defence, quite literally, didn’t lay a hand on the countless Donegal runners as they racked up 1-10, all from open play, in the opening half.

Ciaran Thompson and Michael Langan hit three points apiece from good distances in the opening 30 minutes, while the diminutive Ryan McHugh re-directed Michael Murphy’s poorly hit 45 to find Cavan’s net to put Donegal in a commanding 1-7 to 1-3 lead after 24 minutes.

It was the only bad ball Murphy hit all day. It was another one of those Championship Sundays where the Glenswilly man’s star shone brightly. Everything he touched seemed to lead to a Donegal score.

Murphy shuttled between the two 45s and didn’t seem bothered by Oisin Kiernan trying to stick to him like Velcro.

If anything, Cavan’s pre-occupation with man-marking Murphy upset their own rhythm, until manager Mattie McGleenan had the foresight to change it 10 minutes before half-time.

Cavan tried to force the ball into their inside men as often as possible in the early stages – and when the lightweight pair of Conor Bradley and Caoimhin O’Reilly did gain hard-earned possession they hadn’t enough support around them and were usually swallowed up by Donegal defenders.

In contrast, Donegal relied on their slick running game with defenders Stephen McMenamin, Eoghan Gallagher and Caolan Ward catching the eye for the home side.

Rarely did they force the ball into their inside men of Patrick McBrearty and Jamie Brennan. But when they did, McBrearty and Brennan were never short of supporting runs.

Donegal worked the ball brilliantly into McBrearty in the 23rd minute but the Kilcar man was denied by Raymond Galligan from close range, and five minutes later the Cavan ’keeper narrowed his angles to deny the same player and keep the visitors in the game.

Cavan’s playmaker Cian Mackey was pushed to the fringes and even though Gearoid McKiernan hit two important scores towards the end of the first half to keep Cavan in touch, they needed others to step up to the plate.

From a Cavan perspective, it was a genuine pity Dara McVeety wasn’t fit enough to start. They needed all their best players to be fit and firing on all cylinders to stand a chance of upsetting Donegal on their home patch.

The Breffnimen simply didn’t have enough players to threaten Donegal’s posts, whereas the hosts had accurate shooters out the field, infinitely more pace in their middle eight and a flawless conductor in Murphy.

Cavan, though, did manage to puncture the centre of the Donegal defence when midfielder Killian Clarke retained possession under pressure before off-loading to O’Reilly who side-footed past Shaun Patton and into the home side’s net.

It was a score that just made Donegal angry as they hit 1-6 without reply between the 17th and 29th minutes.

Langan’s third point of the day – in the 27th minute – was the pick of them, hitting the ball impossibly high before it landed between Raymond Galligan’s posts.

Cavan rallied before the end of the first half through gutsy scores from McKiernan (0-2) and defender Niall Murray to create the impression on the scoreboard that they were still in the hunt at the interval [1-10 to 1-6].

Supporters could have left Ballybofey at half-time knowing that there was no way Cavan would make a dramatic comeback.

To kill any giddy romanticism in the Cavan ranks, Donegal rattled off the first six points of the second half to cruise into a 10-point lead after 44 minutes.

Michael Murphy was having a field day. His 40th minute point drew warm applause from the home fans, attracting the attention of three Cavan players before swinging over his third from play.

Corner-forward Jamie Brennan showed glimpses of his quality before McBrearty finally broke his duck in the 61st minute with his first of four points.

Two minutes later, he accepted a stunning crossfield pass from Murphy to bag his second. In between times, McKiernan hit three unanswered points and got Cavan back to within five points.

But that’s as good as it got for the visitors.

Declan Bonner withdrew some of his star performers in the closing stages while substitute Cian Mulligan put his hand up for a starting place against Derry on May 27 with a confident finish to the net in stoppage-time.

Donegal could have helped themselves to another couple of goals as Cavan pushed forward in the closing stages.

But a 2-20 tally was more than enough to suggest they are realistic Ulster contenders.

Cavan, meanwhile, will take some lifting ahead of the All-Ireland Qualifiers.

Donegal: S Patton; E Gallagher, N McGee, C Ward (0-1); S McMenamin, P Brennan, R McHugh (1-0); H McFadden, L McLoone (0-1); C Thompson (0-3), M Langan (0-3), F McGlynn; P McBrearty (0-4), M Murphy (0-6, 0-3 frees), J Brennan (0-2) 

Subs: C McGinley for C Thompson (53), D O’Connor for F McGlynn (53), C Mulligan (1-0) for R McHugh (60), M McHugh for F McGlynn (64), S McBrearty for J Brennan (67), C McGonagle for M Langan (70)

Yellow cards: P McBrearty (64)

Cavan: R Galligan; J McLoughlin, P Faulkner, N Murray (0-1); K Brady, C Brady, C Moynagh; K Clarke, B Magee (0-1); C Mackey (0-2 frees), O Kiernan, E Flanagan; C O’Reilly (1-3, 0-3 frees), G McKiernan (0-7, 0-2 frees), C Bradley

Subs: F Reilly for K Brady (22), R Connolly for N Murray (h/t), A Cole (0-1) for B Magee (44), M Reilly for C O’Reilly (45), D McVeety for E Flanagan (53); Yellow cards: K Clarke (22), P Faulkner (37), E Flanagan (41), C Brady (54),

Referee: D Gough (Meath)

Attendance: 9,612