AIB Ulster Senior Club Football Championship final | Gaoth Dobhair 0-13 Scotstown 0-12 (AET)
HORRIBLE, yet beautiful. Mucky December football with an abundance of brilliant defending might have a bad name, but yesterday it shone. And perhaps that’s what’s most impressive about Gaoth Dobhair winning.
It’s hard to know which part of the rubble of a chaotic Ulster final to pick at first, but perhaps the Donegal side’s resilience would be fitting.
Their county’s first senior provincial champions since St Joseph’s all of 43 years ago, this wasn’t a day for the ruinous flair they inflicted on Crossmaglen. This was steeled bodies and minds above all else.
Scotstown would have been the ones doing the pre-match rain dance given that they looked physically more powerful, but Gaoth Dobhair never took a backward step.
It wore a strange kind of beauty. At first it was a hard game to love, but it grew until nobody could keep their eyes to themselves.
Shane Ferry was the one to come off the bench and inscribe himself into club legend, profiting from some opportunist quick thinking from Eamon McGee.
A free 48 metres out was that bit far, so as everyone else hesitated, he nicked the ball and kicked it for James Carroll, who laid it off for Ferry to kick the only score of extra time’s gripping second period.
McGee would later get the line for a second booking, but it was the earlier dismissal of Shane Carey that left its mark on the game. Scotstown failed to score in the final 14 minutes of play after he was sent off for a robust tackle. In the context of the game’s unflinching physicality, a straight red was harsh.
Donal Morgan and Odhrán McFadden-Ferry were both also given second bookings but stayed on under the barely-understandable ‘extra-time’s a new game’ rule.
Scotstown would’ve had more cause for complaint on the red card than Gaoth Dobhair had on what looked like a pivotal refereeing decision right on the blow in normal time.
They looked to have won it when Michael Carroll landed the ball between the posts at the end of two minutes of stoppage time, but referee Noel Mooney rightly called it back for a throw by Odhrán McFadden-Ferry.
Read more: Gaoth Dobhair boss Mervyn O'Donnell delighted as his history boys end Donegal's Ulster wait
The conditions suited defenders, and the two sides loaded bodies back and made life almost impossible. The repeated breakdown of Gaoth Dobhair’s famed handpassing game was a sign of how difficult it was, but they managed to adjust plenty.
Kevin Cassidy was once more central to that, showing and winning when they had the space to use him.
It was 0-2 apiece at the end of a cagey opening quarter, but Scotstown showed signs of having done serious homework. They were winning the tactical battle at that stage. They were thrice more level before the interval, with Cian Mulligan kicking the last score of the half off a brilliant move that began with a double surge from Neil McGee.
When Scotstown hit the first three scores of the second half to go 0-8 to 0-5 ahead, they looked have dealt a swift blow. At that stage, Paul Sherlock celebrated a turnover in his own half like a hurler in Thurles.
An Bhoth looked to have found the game’s measure. But led by Odhrán MacNiallais, whose monumental impact on their attacking play only earns magnification through the brilliance of the job Damien McArdle did to restrict him, the Donegal men kept at it, at it, at it. Cut it to a point and hung in there until MacNiallais found a half yard to send it to extra-time.
His man-marking job on Kieran Hughes was one of umpteen brilliant individual defensive displays. Jack McDevitt on Eamon Collum, Donal Morgan as Scotstown’s sweeper, Ryan O’Toole on Cian Mulligan at one end, and Gary McFadden earning particular credit at the other end on Conor McCarthy.
Darren Hughes left himself without an ounce left, while Shane Carey had a big game in attack for the Monaghan champions, hitting three from play off Neil McGee. That threatened to be the decisive factor for much of it.
Gaoth Dobhair had brought their shovels. Cassidy and MacNiallais were behind it all as they clawed their way back into a game that conventional wisdom would have ruled them out of in their largely youthful state.
Cassidy won a vital free at 0-10 to 0-8 that sub James Carroll squeezed over, and a vital turnover when Scotstown sub James Hamill was too slow to use the ball led to a free that MacNiallais swung to cut it back to a point again at 0-11 to 0-10.
They got the squeeze on Rory Beggan’s kickout, cut it out and worked it back to the masterful MacNiallais once more, and he propelled Gaoth Dobhair into another 20 minutes.
Scotstown were the ones that had been there before, having gone the full 80 minutes against Crossmaglen in that unforgettable decider three years ago. They would still have felt they had the upper hand.
But Gaoth Dobhair are just a relentless young side. James Ó Baoill fisted their only score of the first period of extra-time, drawing them level once more after Rory Beggan had earlier kicked a 45’.
And it was the Tír Chonaill men who got the winner when Shane Ferry played off McGee’s intelligence and popped the winner.
The Allstar goalkeeper did once more as he did against Coleraine, playing the last five minutes as a half-forward for Scotstown. He got his chance but, as he did in the final three years ago at the end of normal time, he couldn’t find the range from 47 metres.
Still, it was far from just that. Emmet Caulfield had an even later effort but it was the case of the wrong man in the right place as he swung a full-back’s left boot at an effort that trickled wide from 35 yards.
The rain was as incessant as the teams, and someone had to lose.
You have to wonder whether it’ll ever happen for Scotstown now. That’s two finals and a couple of other near misses. The well is sounding shallow on them, and it would be a great pity were they not to get across the line.
But Gaoth Dobhair have been the best team in Ulster this year. Rain, hail, sunshine, whatever way it’s come they’ve mastered it.
Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí.
Watch them grow now.
Read more: Gaoth Dobhair boss Mervyn O'Donnell delighted as his history boys end Donegal's Ulster wait
MATCH STATS
Scotstown: R Beggan (0-2, 0-1 45’); J McDevitt, E Caulfield; P Sherlock, D Morgan, D McArdle (0-1), R McKenna, R O’Toole; F Caulfield, K Hughes (0-1); C McCarthy (0-1), D Hughes (0-1), J McCarey; S Carey (0-6, 0-3f), F Maguire
Subs: J Hamill for McKenna (52), O Heaphey for Maguire (57), B Boylan for McCarey (69), F McPhillips for McDevitt (71)
Yellow cards: K Hughes (3), D Morgan (60, 76), D McArdle (76)
Red card: S Carey (68)
Gaoth Dobhair: C Sweeney; N McGee, C McFadden; G McFadden, E McGee, N Friel, D Ó Baoill; D McBride, O McFadden-Ferry; O MacNiallais (0-4, 0-3f), C Mulligan (0-1), M Carroll (0-1), N Ó Baoill (0-1); E Collum (0-1), K Cassidy (0-2)
Subs: J Carroll (0-1f) for Collum (35), S Ferry (0-1) for N Ó Baoill (60), P McGee for McBride (start of ET), J Ó Baoill (0-1) for G McFadden (62)
Blood sub: C McCafferty for J Ó Baoill (68-69)
Yellow cards: O McFadden-Ferry (47, 76), E McGee (69, 79), C McFadden (70)
Red card: E McGee (second yellow, 79)
Referee: N Mooney (Cavan)
Attendance: 5,313
