NFL Division 1: Donegal 1-22 Derry 1-19
Donegal will play better than this in plenty of games and lose. They ran through treacle for long periods here but finished as if they’d snapped the bungee holding them back. It was enough to whiplash them past a Derry side who still haven’t won a game in Division 1 and probably won’t be long for it.
On 55 minutes, Jim McGuinness’s side were eight points down and looking every inch a team that had played five games in five weeks. But a goal from Shane O’Donnell, allied to a couple of two-pointers from Ciarán Thompson and Daire Ó Baoill, completely turned the tables. Derry were outscored 1-9 to 0-1 in the final 15 minutes – throw their late collapse at home to Kerry into the mix and there’s no big mystery as to why they’re in relegation trouble.
“The long and the short of it today is very simple analysis,” said McGuinness afterwards. “We were very tired. We were flat. We lacked our normal energy, our normal intensity. With the best will in the world, there’s fellas there trying to get there and not being able to get there.
“We won’t be over-analysing it. It’s the fifth week on the bounce and that’s the reality of the situation. They’re very intensive games. All the rule enhancements make them that way. I just feel we played most of the game under a level of fatigue today so we weren’t able to play the way we normally play. The big positive is we found a way to win the game. And correlated with that, the players who came in brought a big energy to the game.”
Chief among those was the familiar figure of Michael Murphy. Before the game, as the Donegal team walked to the dressingroom, the little kids who were togged out to play at half-time watched them go by and one of them shouted, ‘Which one’s Murphy?’ His buddy looked at him with outrage/contempt: ‘He’s the big one with the grey hair!’
Donegal were four points down by the time we saw the big one with the grey hair trot onto the pitch for the second half. They were six down by the time he was able to have any impact. That was because this was a game for long stretches in which Donegal made Derry look like anything but the worst team in Division 1.
In front of 6,830 in Ballyshannon, their first-half shooting was particularly generous to the visitors, with seven wides on the board inside the opening half-hour alone. It was a sleepy performance, in keeping with a sleepy Sunday lunchtime atmosphere. Rarely has a team looked more in need of a half-time rocket than McGuinness’s side did here.
Ultimately, Murphy was that rocket. With the game so relentless now, it seems a bit mad that a 35-year-old can be so important but in reality, he turned the game here. He only scored a single point from a free but he laid on three goal chances for Donegal and one of them was the key score, O’Donnell’s goal on 64 minutes. With Ó Baoill, Thompson and Conor O’Donnell throwing into the pot as well, Donegal finished like a train.
For Derry, this one is going to be all in how they look at it. They played in flurries, with Anton Tohill popping up at full-forward to decent effect and Lachlan Murray (mostly) having one of those days where he looks like one of the most dangerous forwards in the country. When Paul Cassidy swung over his second of the day soon after the break, they were 0-13 to 0-7 up and cruising.
Donegal had the second-half wind so they were bound to make some kind of inroads. The duly did with back-to-back two-pointers from Thompson (a boomer of a free from the right sideline) and Oisin Gallen. After Jamie Brennan skewed the first Murphy-butlered goal chance wide, Conor Glass seemed to put an end to the Donegal resistance with a lovely finish past Shaun Patten.
Murray turned the screw, whistling over another two points from play, and when Conor Doherty came forward to snipe his only one of the day it meant Derry were 1-18 to 0-13 ahead with a quarter of an hour left on the clock. They clearly should have seen it out from there. Nothing short of two wins from two against Mayo and Armagh will save them now.
“This is always going to be a very tough game today,” said Derry manager Paddy Tally afterwards. “Now, when you’re 10 minutes to go there and you’re looking really good, you’re saying, ‘Right maybe we’ll get something out of it.’ But we probably know in our hearts that the two games left, the Mayo game and the Armagh game are going to determine our future.
“This league is so competitive. But listen, we’re showing plenty of heart. They were playing well today. The players you could not give any more in terms of determination and work rate. So you still have to pick the positives out of it as well.”
DONEGAL: S Patton; M Curran, B McCole, E Bán Gallagher; R McHugh (0-0-1), C McGonagle, C Moore (0-0-1); C Thompson (0-2-2, 1tpf), H McFadden (0-0-1); S O’Donnell (1-0-1), N O’Donnell, D Ó Baoill (0-1-3); C O’Donnell (0-0-3), O Gallen (0-1-1), J Brennan.
Subs: O McFadden Ferry for Curran, M Murphy (0-0-1, 1f) for N O’Donnell (both h-t); C McColgan for Brennan (50 mins); E McHugh for McFadden, Odhran Doherty McHugh (both 58).
DERRY: O Lynch; D Baker, E McEvoy (0-0-1), M Bradley; C Doherty (0-0-1), B Rogers, P McGrogan; C Glass (1-0-1), A Tohill; D Higgins, P Cassidy (0-0-2), E Doherty (0-0-1); N Loughlin (0-0-1), S McGuigan (0-1-4, 1tpf, 4f), L Murray (0-1-4).
Subs: M Doherty for McEvoy (50 mins); C McMonagle for Loughlin (52); D Cassidy for Rodgers (58); P McGurk for McGrogan (67).
Referee: J Henry (Mayo).
