Harte passes Ulster keys to McGuinness

In the second last minute of normal time and with Tyrone trailing by four points, it was Stephen O’Neill who took receipt of a hand-pass from Pascal McConnell in his own full-back line.

It wasn’t the first time the county’s most able marksman found himself in an area even a sniper would struggle to hit the target from.

Just before half time, both he and Martin Penrose were back there defending vigorously, stranded from where they could hurt Donegal the most.

But this was the level of respect Mickey Harte was prepared to show Donegal. By extending the briefs of two of Tyrone’s best scorers he was conceding that his players had to punch above their weight.

In the end, it turned out to be too much. Had Martin Penrose’s drive beaten Paul Durcan in injury-time, Donegal would have been denied a deserving victory.

They may have fouled to the point of incessancy on occasions but they were much the cuter outfit in Clones.

They were also the more physical side, breaking tackles with ease and hitting Tyrone so hard at times their opponents look stunned.

Dermot Carlin is a natural corner-back and may have been in unchartered waters sauntering into the forwards but he looked dazed and confused by the Donegal coverage in the second half.

His 40th-minute point was promising but he then coughed up possession on three occasions.

Yes, Saturday saw a baton handed over. When Jim McGuinness moved towards Harte to shake his hand at the final whistle, he might as well have been handed the keys to Ulster.

If the win over Derry was aesthetically pleasing, this was yet another demonstration that Donegal can do it the ugly way.

McGuinness isn’t too concerned about how they are perceived — even if their support among neutrals is growing.

“Nothing changes for us. We’re our own biggest critics and we know what we’re working on and know what we want to achieve.

“If we achieve that within the course of the game we’re happy. We could have kicked 16 points today and maybe not achieved half of what we were looking for. Then you have to go back to the drawing board and find out why not.

“Whether people are saying we’re absolutely useless or they’re saying that we’re absolutely brilliant it doesn’t really matter.”

McGuinness found Tyrone a tougher team defensively than 12 months ago. Pre-empting Harte’s tactic of using a sweeper (Ryan McMenamin), he sacrificed Leo McLoone, who had played so well against Derry.

“It was a very difficult call. We felt the last day with the three up and Michael [Murphy] on the 40 it gave us a good platform to get at them. From very early on today we knew that opportunity wasn’t going to be afforded to us and it was going to be a different game.

“Declan Walsh played very well in Cavan as well and he didn’t make it for Derry. I’ve said it all along — it’s horses for courses. You’re trying to get the right mix to get over the line in any given game.”

Murphy was one of three Donegal players who went down injured in the warm-up. McGuinness didn’t look panicked at the time but his mind was telling a different story.

“It was a bit of a disaster. We were doing a warm-up and Paddy McGrath twinged his hamstring, Michael Murphy twinged his hamstring and Neil McGee twinged his hamstring as well and you’re thinking, ‘Is this a meltdown or what’s going to happen here?’ Neil had to come off but the other two boys soldiered on.”

While the scoreline will have certain pundits revising their opinion of Donegal as a more attacking force this year, they committed several more players to forays up the field.

Harte admitted as much, saying: “We set up to counteract that they would come in waves. They do come much more in waves forward than they did last year. Last year they had two men up front or one sometimes and they depended on that player to hold the ball up and win a free or whatever. They’ve moved on a bit now, there are people arriving to take the ball off them.”

Tyrone more than lived with Donegal for the majority of the game and should have gone in at half time more than 0-6 to 0-5 ahead. Varying the attack and kicking some excellent long-range points, they were posing problems for the favourites.

Donegal, on the other hand, were relying on frees to keep them in touch but opened up more in the second half, starting with two quick-fire Rory Kavanagh points.

Ryan Bradley was the protagonist in getting the ball forward and his 49th-minute point put Donegal ahead for only the second time in the game.

They didn’t look back, though. A Murphy free followed by Karl Lacey maximising Donegal pressure on the resultant kick-out and then a Colm McFadden score from distance pushed them four ahead. There was still time for a couple of Tyrone scores but the goal they needed never came.

Scorers for Donegal: M Murphy (3f), C McFadden 0-3 each; R Kavanagh 0-2; M McHugh, P McBrearty, R Bradley, K Lacey 0-1 each.

Scorers for Tyrone: Joe McMahon (2f), Stephen O’Neill 0-2 each; Mattie Donnelly, C Clarke, Seán O’Neill, M Penrose, D Carlin, C Gormley (1 45) 0-1 each.

Subs for Donegal: Declan Walsh for N McGee (inj, 3); M McElhinney for Gallagher, M O’Reilly for Walsh (both 55); L McLoone for Bradley (69); C Toye for McBrearty (73).

Subs for Tyrone: R McNabb for Mulligan (50); B McGuigan for Mattie Donnelly (61); A Cassidy for Mark Donnelly, N McKenna for McMenamin (both 66).

Sent off: C McFadden (71, second yellow)

Referee: David Coldrick (Meath).