Awesome Orchard’s ruthless reminder as Donegal wilt

Armagh 3-15 Donegal 0-11

They did that in ruthless fashion on the day that the northern showpiece came to headquarters.

Whatever the old market town of Clones thought of the decision, the Ulster Council was justified in bringing the Ulster final to Croker, with 67,136 people crammed in to see a potential cracker.

Unfortunately, the cracker never materialised.

Armagh showed flashes of brilliant football, and scored two excellent goals in the final 10 minutes. By that stage, Donegal’s resistance was anything but firm and they looked like a team praying for the final whistle.

The performance of Armagh was exemplified by their captain. Kieran McGeeney was thought to be on his last legs, after burning so much fuel for the past six years, like a lot of his team-mates. Yesterday, he returned with such power that his manager singled him out for praise afterwards.

“People said Kieran would be ring-rusty, but I think everyone found out their answer there,” Joe Kernan said.

McGeeney drove Armagh from the back, marshalling the 40 in his typically unfussy manner.

Driven forward by McGeeney and another accomplished display from Francie Bellew, Armagh’s forward reaped a wonderful harvest.

By half-time, all their starting forwards had scored and Donegal were staring into the abyss, 1-9 to 0-4 down. At times in that first half, Armagh moved the ball with such simplicity of motion, you wonder if any side could live with them.

They were four points up before Donegal even registered on the scoreboard, Colm McFadden nailing a free in the 17th minute, and already things were looking ominous. Steven McDonnell arched two wonderful points over the bar in the first ten minutes. It looked like being a long day for his marker, Niall McCready, but the corner-back recovered well and McDonnell didn’t score for the rest of the afternoon.

Others stood up to the plate. Tony McEntee had an excellent game at centre-forward, scoring a superb side-line ball in the first half and draping a veil over this game with his score right at the death.

Oisin McConville and Diarmuid Marsden borrowed from an earlier vintage, both players having their best game for Armagh in quite some time. Both scored goals, Marsden’s was significant. The first goal of the game, it came just as Donegal were shaking themselves from their inexplicable lethargy.

Having let Armagh streak ahead, Donegal scored three consecutive points, through McFadden, Devenney and Hegarty to come within a single score of parity. It was the closest Donegal would get to Armagh for the whole afternoon.

McConville tapped over a couple of points, before dropping a ‘45’ into the Donegal square. Paul Durcan came to collect, and failed, Marsden was there to fist the ball into the net. It illustrated Donegal’s day. Durcan, playing his first game, made a few unforced errors which Armagh capitalised on.

Despite beating Tyrone, Donegal simply weren’t street-wise enough for Armagh. Even rugby training doesn’t do much good when you are running into those stone-like orange shirts. Instead, Donegal panicked and did as Donegal teams have done since they began to kick ball - hand-passed themselves into trouble.

Running into too many cul-de-sacs, Donegal looked a team bereft of ideas. Armagh absorbed and struck when they had to. The introduction of John Gildea for the second half stemmed the flow somewhat, but when Colm McFadden watched his shot come off the crossbar, Donegal must have realised it wasn’t their day.

And their play typified that. Devenney was game in his tussle with Enda McNulty, Gildea calmed some nerves, but Armagh were simply too good. Adrian Sweeney, who had one of his quietest days in a Donegal shirt, brought his side to within five points in the 55th minute with a fine score, but even 1-11 to 0-9 down, Donegal didn’t look like they could fashion a way back into the game.

It was carnival stuff from Armagh in the final 12 minutes - Paddy McKeever finished off a blinding, pacy move in the 64th minute, and three minutes later, it was McConville’s turn.

Donegal were dead on their feet, and it is going to take a monumental effort to regain their composure for the qualifiers after this beating. Armagh move on, with not as much stealth this year, but with a renewed focus.

We were told there was no pace in the Armagh team, yet most of their scores came from sweeping moves that bamboozled the Donegal defence. All but two scores came from play. And the myth that Armagh don’t go in for the kill was effectively erased by their demolition of Donegal in the final ten minutes.

Armagh are hungry and looking dangerous.

Scorers: Armagh: O McConville (1-3, 1 free), D Marsden, P McKeever (1-2 each), T McEntee (0-3, 1 s-l ball), S McDonnell (0-2), R Clarke, B Mallon, P Loughran (0-1 each)

Donegal: C McFadden (0-4, frees), B Devenney (0-2, frees), M Hegarty, B Roper, A Sweeney, R Kavanagh, P McGonagle (0-1 each)

ARMAGH: P Hearty; E McNulty, F Bellew, A Mallon, K Hughes, K McGeeney, A O'Rourke; P Loughran, P McGrane; P McKeever, T McEntee, OmcConville, S McDonnell, R Clarke, D Marsden.

Subs: B Mallon for Clarke (62 mins), J Toal for Loughran (65 mins), J McNulty for McGeeney (68 mins), J McEntee for McKeever (68 mins), A McCann for Marsden (68 mins)

DONEGAL: P Durcan; N McCready, R Sweeney, D Diver, E McGee, B Monaghan, S Carr; B Boyle, S McDermott; C Toye, M Hegarty, B Roper, C McFadden, A Sweeney, B Devenney

Subs: J Gildea for McDermott (h-t), R Kavanagh for Toye (h-t), J Haran for Sweeney (63 mins), P McGonigle for Roper (55 mins), K Lacey for McGee (65 mins)

Ref: M Collins (Cork).