Sport

Donegal book semi-final spot with stunning win over Dublin

Donegal's Niamh McLaughlin (left) of celebrates with Evelyn McGinley after the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Football Senior Championship Quarter-Final between Donegal and Dublin in Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim. Picture: Eoin Noonan/Sportsfile
Donegal's Niamh McLaughlin (left) of celebrates with Evelyn McGinley after the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Football Senior Championship Quarter-Final between Donegal and Dublin in Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim. Picture: Eoin Noonan/Sportsfile Donegal's Niamh McLaughlin (left) of celebrates with Evelyn McGinley after the TG4 All-Ireland Ladies Football Senior Championship Quarter-Final between Donegal and Dublin in Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim. Picture: Eoin Noonan/Sportsfile

TG4 All-Ireland Senior Championship quarter-final: Donegal 3-7 Dublin 1-7

DONEGAL produced one of their finest championship wins as they dumped out last year’s finalists and previous four in-a-row winners Dublin with a fully-deserved All-Ireland quarter-final victory in Carrick-on-Shannon on Saturday.

Maxi Curran’s side caused one of the upsets of the weekend with a six-point winning margin to set up a mouthwatering semi-final meeting with champions Meath on Saturday. That will be a repeat of this year’s Division One final that saw the Royal County triumph.

This was the all-round performance that Donegal have craved for so long and after looking performing in patches in their qualifying group games it all fell into place as they inflicted a second successive knockout defeat this year on Mick Bohan’s side.

The Donegal defence was sewn up tight in the first half, which saw a frustrated Dublin only manage a single point, that coming from a Hannah Tyrell free in the ninth minute.

Scores were few and far between in the opening 30 minutes and despite only having a return of four points themselves in the first half and a three point, 0-4 to 0-1, lead at the break, the foundation for this memorable victory had been laid.

Donegal led this from start to finish, Geraldine McLaughlin (free) and the impressive Amy Boyle Carr putting the Ulster side ahead 0-2 to no score with less than six minutes gone. Tyrell’s free opened Dublin’s account but that was their only contribution to the score board for the half. The game’s next score didn’t arrive for almost a quarter of an hour and it was McLaughlin who sent over another free in the 25th minute and she followed up with another two minutes later to give Donegal that three point half-time advantage.

A Dublin response was expected after the resumption and it looked like they had found their groove when Tyrell pointed twice in the first four minutes, albeit it on either side of a McLaughlin free. However, McLaughlin (free) put double figures between them and things began to look ominous for Dublin when Yvonne Bonner fired home the game’s first goal in the 43th minute after some great work from Boyle Carr to put Donegal 1-6 to 0-3 in front.

Carla Rowe and Jennifer Dunne did their best to cancel out that major with a point each but Donegal had the wind in their sails and when Karen Guthrie, who had been on the field for less than 10 minutes, added a second goal in the 49th minute they could sense a upset. It became very real six minutes later when Guthrie’s effort dropped into the back of Ciara Trant’s net as Donegal found themselves 10 points ahead, 3-7 to 0-6. Dublin were rocked and although Rowe scored a late goal it was little consolation as Donegal recorded a memorable win.

Defending champions Meath had to dig deep to see of a gallant Galway side 1-12 to 1-11 in Tullamore on Saturday evening. The winning score game from Emma Duggan with virtually the last kick of the game after Galway had got back on level terms having been 1-11 to 0-9 down.

Donegal: R McCafferty; E Gallagher, E McGinley, T Kennedy; D Foley, S Twohig, T Hegarty; K Herron, Nicole McLaughlin; Niamh McLaughlin, R Rodgers, A Boyle Carr (0-1; N Hegarty, Y Bonner (1-0), G McLaughlin (0-5 frees)

Subs: K Guthrie (2-1) for T Hegarty (40).

Dublin: C Trant; J Tobin, L Caffrey, L Magee; A Kane, M Byrne, S Goldrick; J Dunne (0-1), K McDaid; N Owens, C Rowe C Rowe (1-3, 0-3 frees), K Sullivan; H Tyrrell (0-2, 0-1 free), C O’Connor, L Davey (0-1)

Subs: N Hetherington for Sullivan (48), S Kileen for Owens (58).

Referee: K Phelan (Laois).