Donegal look to be well on the way up after Armagh victory

Donegal 2-10 Armagh 1-8

Seasons change, and some teams change with the seasons better than others. Not that this result is all about Donegal returning to Division One football in 2015 – or indeed Armagh's relegation to Division Three.

It’s about the season at hand too, and for Donegal it’s already simmering nicely ahead of the summer. They’ll actually go on a warm-weather training holiday later this week, to Portugal, ahead of their Division Two final against Monaghan – and not long after that comes the presumably blazing hot Ulster championship showdown against Derry on May 25th.

“Yeah, we’ve had a really good campaign, and from the first game really we tried to be on the front foot as much as possible,” said manager Jim McGuinness. “We’ve been top of the table since the very first game, against Laois, and it would have been disappointing not to have finished up there too.

“And I think we’ve played some good football, the attitude has been good, and we’ve got to the level of intensity that we wanted. So it’s all about pushing on now for the Derry game, seven weeks away.”

Typical panache
After going up 1-4 to two points after 16 minutes – Michael Murphy slotting home a penalty with typical panache – there wasn't much doubt Donegal would push on for the win here. Yet they went another 20 minutes of that first half before scoring again, as Armagh raised a sufficient gallop to close the gap to one point, thanks in part to Jamie Clarke's flicked goal on 20 minutes.

Then four minutes into the second half Donegal were on the front foot again, a brilliantly placed pass from Rory Kavanagh falling straight into the hands of Murphy, who again finished with typical panache. Donegal went on demonstrate their strength in depth through the likes of Kavanagh and Karl Lacey, plus substitutes Paddy McBrearty and David Walsh – those two players also nicely warmed up for an Ulster under-21 final on Wednesday.

Kavanagh was in excellent form, finishing with three points from play, and Colm McFadden’s 0-5 – including four frees – an obvious difference too. Neil Gallagher also made his first start of the league, and Lacey looks to have buried his injury problems into the past.

Mark McHugh didn’t feature but, with Christy Toye and Dermot Molloy lively enough, there is no sign of any cracks in the Donegal armour that appeared going into last summer.

“In fairness Armagh made it a real, tough battle,” added McGuinness. “That’s our third victory away from home, and the bottom line here was sealing promotion. And in terms of finding new players we’d be more than happy in that department . . .”

No great complaints
For Armagh, even with the eager support of the 4,829 crowd, the battle against relegation ended in vain. Manager Paul Grimley had no great complaints, only some slight questioning of the referee.

“We talk about black cards, we talk about rule changes, we talk about giving respect, and the elephant in the room is the refereeing,” said Grimley. “We had a player, Stefan Campbell, who rode two head high tackles, and a free was given against him. I wasn’t happy with a whole lot of decisions.

“It’s disappointing we have been relegated, and there is no-one more heartbroken than myself, but there is no fault to the players or the coaching or management staff. We have a fantastic team and I’ll stand by them through thick and thin. They are a good bunch and they’ll be easy to get together for the championship.”

It had been said in the build-up to this game that Grimley’s position might be under some threat should Armagh be relegated, but he laughed all that off.

“That was just a bit of banter. It gets them all excited on the wires, doesn’t it? I’m not going anywhere.”

Except that Armagh are going down to Division Three for 2015: for Donegal it's onwards and upwards, in impressively rude health even before the summer sun hits their backs.

DONEGAL: P Durcan; E McGee, N McGee, K Lacey; F McGlynn, L McLoone, A Thompson; N Gallagher, R Kavanagh (0-3); O MacNiallais, M McElhinney, C Toye; C McFadden (0-5, four frees), M Murphy (2-0 one penalty), D Molloy. Subs: P McBrearty (0-1) for Gallagher (50 mins), David Walsh (0-1) for Toye, R McHugh for Molloy (both 56 mins), H McFadden for Kavanagh (65 mins), Declan Walsh for David Walsh (70 mins, black card).
ARMAGH: P McEvoy; M Murray, G McCooey (0-1), F Moriarty; A Kernan (0-1), C Vernon, A Mallon; S Harold, K Toner; S Campbell, K Dyas, E McVerry; J Clarke (1-1), T Kernan (0-3, two frees, one 45), K Carragher (0-1). Subs: A Findon for A Kernan (50 mins), E Rafferty for Dyas (52 mins), R Grugan for McGooey (53 mins), R Tasker (0-1) for Clare (68 mins).
Referee: Fergal Kelly (Longford)