Donegal 1-10 Antrim 0-07: In dreadful conditions at Ballybofey, Donegal emerged victorious from a dull opening fixture in the Ulster championship against Antrim. The six-point winning margin was only ensured when Mark McHugh slid home a well worked goal in injury time.
It was just about fair, though Donegal will know they have some work to do if they are to live up the expectations on some this summer.
The sparse crowd had to wait 22 minutes for the first point from play for either side. It came from Ryan Bradley who moved Donegal into a one-point lead after Colm McFadden and Kevin Niblock traded frees.
By that time, three players had already gone into the book as both sides struggled to cope with slippery conditions underfoot.
Antrim’s efforts at restricting Donegal had proven effective until Bradley’s point but the hosts found some cohesion after that and tagged on two more through Adrian Hanlon and Michael Murphy.
Bradley and Dermot Molloy then added two more on either side of Paddy Cunningham’s second to leave Donegal in a three-point lead at the break.
The second half was one-way traffic for the most part and when Antrim finally did score, through Mark Dougan in the 63rd minute, they added another through Tomás McCann, only to see the former dismissed for an elbow immediately afterwards.
A man down, Antrim faced the task of reeling in a five-point deficit with minutes remaining; an almost impossible task, given the previous hour’s play.
Instead it was Donegal who added some polish when McHugh linked up with Kevin Rafferty and fired the ball into the bottom left-hand corner.