Donegal up and running
For Donegal, six-point winners against Antrim, this was a medicinal success after four years without a win in the Ulster championship. For the team managed by Liam Bradley there was to be no fairytale repeat of their win in Ballybofey the year before last, which acted as a springboard in a summer when they tore a few feathers off Tyrone and Kerry.
For the 7,385 hardy souls among the continual downpour meant there was more a feel of a Dr McKenna Cup outing than a championship opener. That feeling was still palpable at the end of the match.
The conditions were not conducive to free-flowing football but then again Ulster generally isn’t either.
Both teams dropped men back so those suffering from claustrophobia would have been uncomfortable all afternoon. Lateral passes of the fisted variety outnumbered the use of the boot.
Colm McFadden scored the first point of the afternoon in the second minute when Michael Murphy was fouled by debutant full-back Ricky Johnson. With Anto Healy offering a shield, the Donegal full-forward had to go deeper and deeper for possession, and although Jim McGuinness’s tactical approach can be adaptable and interchangeable, Murphy is the one imperative ingredient.
All too often his wanders outfield meant Donegal had no target for their attacks and stalemate followed.
Kevin Niblock levelled with a curling free, but if the home forwards were getting scant change then the visiting ones were not even on the breadline. By half-time, it was 0-6 to 0-3 for Donegal, with the first score from play arriving on 22 minutes from Ryan Bradley and the most pleasing on the eye being that of Adrian Hanlon, who had the tightest of angles to aim at from.
Antrim, who went into the game minus the McGourtys, leaned a little heavier on Paddy Cunningham’s shoulders and he missed as many as he scored in the first half, with two efforts going over and two off target.
They started the second half purposely and although Tomás McCann’s opening point gave their travelling support something to raise their voices about, Donegal were finding their scores that little easier to come by.
It was only when Mark McHugh scored their eighth of the day did there seem to be a loosening of the contest, as the gain-line was broken a couple of times in the one move.
Murphy’s only real responsibility close to goal was to stand over frees and from one such occasion, when Ryan Bradley was taken out cynically by Kevin Brady as he managed to find an unusual corridor of opportunity, he popped over Donegal’s tenth score of the day.
Soon afterwards, 17-year-old Patrick McBrearty was given his senior bow, having already scored 1-3 for the minors earlier in the afternoon in their loss to Antrim.
At that particular juncture, on 53 minutes, Antrim had only four points and when Mark Dougan boomed a fifth over it was their first score in 16 minutes. McCann added another straight away and although the chances of an upset didn’t seem probable as both sets of players spluttered and squelched around the ball, there was still a flickering possibility.
Antrim were toothless, though. Substitute Dougan earned a straight red from referee Maurice Deegan when he tangled with Karl Lacey on the ground and felt the need to pointlessly elbow the two-time All-Star in the face two minutes from time.
As he departed off there were the usual mutterings of discontent but his county’s odds lengthened the further he walked. Then, in stoppage time, McHugh managed to score the only goal of the game.
Some of those in attendance were already spilling out, hop-scotching the puddles as they did so, when the wing-forward skipped in from the left of centre after an intelligent pass from substitute Kevin Rafferty to part the sea and drove low and crisply past Sean O’Neill.
It was the cherry on top of a cake that mightn’t have been the tastiest but Donegal, after three losses in their previous three provincial championship outings at home, are up and running.
Scorers for Donegal: M McHugh 1-1, C McFadden 0-3 (2f), M Murphy 0-3 (3f), R Bradley 0-2, A Hanlon (0-1).
Scorers for Antrim: P Cunningham 0-2 (1f), K Niblock 0-2 (2f), T McCann 0-2, M Dougan (0-2).
Referee: Maurice Deegan (Laois) Donegal subs: Marty Boyle for A Thompson (20), P McBrearty and M Hegarty for Molloy and Hanlon (53), K Rafferty for McElhinney (59), D McLaughlin for Bradley (66).
Antrim subs: K Brady for M McCann (41), T O’Neill for O’Boyle (46), S Burke for Herron (48), M Dougan for Cunningham (59).
