Joy for Derry as Oak Leafers beat Donegal to win their first Ulster Championship since 1998

Ulster Senior Football Championship: Derry 1-16 Donegal 1-14

From Andy Watters at Croke Park

A SEA of humanity in red and white roared in delight as Chrissy McKaigue raised the Angle-Celt Cup in triumph.

What a win for Derry and who could begrudge them their joy? After all, the county has waited 24 long years for this and there have been plenty of early exits and humiliating hidings. Just three years ago they were playing Waterford and London in Division Four and now, thanks to Rory Gallagher, the Oak Leafers are Ulster champions again.

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It has been a remarkable rise for the county and only Derry’s Messiah would have been able to part the red and white sea that flooded onto the field after yesterday’s win.

Nothing beats being there and this was a dogfight you probably needed to be at to fully appreciate as momentum swung one way and then the other. Derry were the better team in the first half but midway through the second, the game was slipping away from them and they had to hang on grimly until their will, fitness and class began to turn the tide.

Donegal did all they could to deny them and when the ‘final’ whistle blew it signalled extra-time for the first time in an Ulster final. After the first half of it the north-west neighbours were still neck-and-neck but Shane McGuigan’s free put their noses in front for the first time since early in the second half.

Then Brendan Rogers, superb at full-back, raced through the tiring Donegal defence. The Hill roared as the ball left his boot and split the posts and the Slaughtneil clubman punched the air with delight because Derry began to believe they had it then.

But there was still drama to come. Donegal replied with a Ciaran Thompson point and then Conor Glass, the get-out-of-jail card in midfield, raced through to leave two in it again with time almost up.

But there was still drama to come. Donegal needed a goal and Peadar Mogan, the man who kept them in the game in the first half, floated the ball into the square.

Donegal hands grabbed it but a goalmouth scramble ended with a free just outside the square. A red wall manned the line as Michael Murphy stepped up.

The shot was blocked but it still wasn’t over. Ryan McHugh grabbed the rebound and lashed in another drive from point-blank range.

Over Derry’s dead body was the ball going to find a way through.

The wall stood firm and as Derry broke referee Sean Hurson blew the final whistle. Joy on the field, in the stands and on the Hill. Clones hasn’t witnessed joyous scenes like yesterday’s for years.

The finale was dramatic and nerve-tingling but the first 10 minutes was a who-blinks-first probing exercise. Donegal won the throw-in and Derry immediately funnelled every man behind the ball.

“Press it, press it,” roared Gallagher and his men shut down Donegal as they passed across and back before Murphy tried his luck. His shot dropped into Odhran Lynch’s grateful gloves and then it was Donegal’s turn to man the barricades.

A Niall Loughlin flick drifted wide and then Caolan McGonagle’s shot was blocked as Paul Cassidy threw himself at his boot. The ball went out for a 45 and Murphy stepped up to take it. Had he scored, you had the feeling that Donegal might have settled and taken control but he missed and Derry grabbed the game by the scruff of its neck.

Ethan Doherty gave Stephen McMenamin the slip on the left wing and then slipped in Niall Toner who spotted Loughlin in space and he buried his shot pass Shaun Patton.

Donegal opened their account when Murphy fed Shane O’Donnell but Derry were in command. Doherty was the provider again for Cassidy’s brilliant point and Shea Downey and a Shane McGuigan free left Derry 1-3 to 0-1 ahead.

Peadar Mogan, the one Donegal forward Derry were unable to shackle in the first half, dragged the Tir Chonaill men back into it with two points either side of swashbuckling Loughlin’s score for Derry. Murphy grabbed a Derry kick-out and raced through to leave three in it but Loughlin’s free squeezed inside the upright and then Rogers, getting forward at every opportunity, sent Derry five points clear with half-time approaching.

Donegal were back in it at the break and you’d expect no less from them. Mogan’s third and a free from Paddy McBrearty, who was pushed to the fringes by Derry skipper McKaigue, meant they were just a kick of the ball behind and it could have been even better for them had Michael Langan not lashed wide after Lynch had fumbled Caolan Ward’s shot.

Derry had been so good in the first half it felt like they should have been in command by the interval but Shaun Patton dribbling a couple of spare footballs out with him as he jogged to his goal for the start of the second period was a reminder that Donegal now had the wind at their backs.

It took them less than a minute to get back on terms. Langan made up for his earlier miss when he lashed a shot through a thicket of defenders and when Lynch spilled it, Odhran McFadden-Ferry was there to lash the rebound into the net.

Rogers briefly put Derry back in front but from there until the end of normal time, Derry were playing catch-up. Donegal levelled through Jason McGee, then Ryan McHugh sent them ahead for the first time and Shane O’Donnell’s score opened a two-point gap.

They looked capable of pushing on to victory then but Derry dug their heels in and fought for everything right across the field. McGuigan and Doherty dragged them level and then McBrearty and McGuigan, now playing out on the 45, swapped scores.

Murphy stroked over a screamer off the outside of his right boot and McGee doubled the lead but a pair of McGuigan frees, both after turnovers which could have resulted in black cards, restored the deadlock.

The seconds ticked away and Derry pushed for a winner. Gareth McKinless bottled up McGonagle and won the ball but Cassidy shot wide off balance and then Glass had a chance but he missed too.

For the time, the Anglo-Celt was decided by extra-time.

Donegal sub Aaron Doherty made a clever run, caught a great ball and kept his composure to land a mark and make it 1-13 to 1-12. Derry sub Emmett Bradley levelled and it seemed penalties were looming.

But Derry had more in their tank. Benny Heron, back on after he’d been subbed, wriggled through a posse of defenders and smashed a shot that Patton did well to save. He had been fouled though and McGuigan curled over the free.

Then Rogers broke through. A shot, a roar, a white flag from the umpire and he punched the air with delight. He thought Derry had won it then. They had.

Derry: O Lynch; C McKaigue, B Rogers (0-3), C McCluskey; C Doherty (0-1), G McKinless, P McGrogan; C Glass (0-1), N Toner; P Cassidy (0-1), S Downey (0-1), E Doherty; B Heron, S McGuigan (0-6, 0-5 frees), N Loughlin (1-2, 0-1 free)

Subs: E Bradley (0-01) for Loughlin (47), L Murray for Heron (63), B McCarron for Toner (67), P McNeill for Downey (71), Heron for Murray (81), Toner for McCarron (81), O McWilliams for Doherty (87).

Yellow card: Glass (91)

Donegal: S Patton; C Ward, B McCole, S McMenamin; R McHugh (0-1), E Ban Gallagher, O McFadden-Ferry (1-0); C McGonagle, J McGee (0-2); P Mogan (0-3), S O’Donnell (0-2), M Langan; P McBrearty (0-2 frees), M Murphy (0-2), J Brennan

Subs: C O’Donnell for Brennan (57), A Doherty (0-01, mark) for McFadden-Ferry (63), N O’Donnell for S O’Donnell (71), H McFadden for McGee (71), C Thompson (0-1) for McGonagle (80), P Brennan for Gallagher (81)

Yellow card: McMenamin (63)

Referee: Sean Hurson (Tyrone)