McGuinness’ men daring to dream

SPORTING a plaster across the bridge of his nose in Saturday’s post-match press conference, it appeared Jim McGuinness was also wearing the wounds of battle.

In fact, a TV camera man had got too close to the Donegal manager at the final, final whistle. The appendage might have been mistaken for a nose band, that fad made popular by Premier League footballers in the early ‘90s with the claim it expanded the airways.

The thing is McGuinness could breathe easy wearing it. After 100 minutes of action in front of a 39,612 crowd, he sat with a smile that couldn’t be wiped.

Even when Emmet Bolton put Kildare three points up — 0-14 to 1-8 — in the second half of extra time, he never thought his team were beaten.

“When it was in the melting pot and Kildare were three up in the second period of extra time I always believed they would try at least to find something and always felt they would keep going until the end.”

That Bolton point in the 82nd minute was immediately followed by a Michael Murphy point after he was teed up by Frank McGlynn.

Murphy, who didn’t start the game due to a hamstring tear, then kicked a giant free after John Doyle had tripped Neil Gallagher.

With Kildare attempting to protect their lead, at times cynically, Dermot Molloy and Kevin Cassidy kicked wides before Christy Toye, the earlier goalscorer, brought the sides level one minute into injury-time.

Kildare then managed to get the ball into their full-forward line when it appeared Karl Lacey had fouled his man but David Coldrick saw nothing wrong.

From the clearance involving match-winner Cassidy, the ball was worked up to Murphy on the left wing who did incredibly well to keep the ball in play. He fed it inside from where it eventually found its way into Cassidy’s hands and he booted over audaciously from over 45 metres out and that was that.

Ahead 0-13 to 1-8 at half-time in extra-time, Kildare looked the more composed of the two sides. Karl Lacey’s point two minutes into first-half injury-time turned out to be Donegal’s first score in 38 minutes since Toye’s goal in the 58th minute.

With his first touch of the ball, substitute Toye took a McGlynn pass and shot past Shane Connolly to make it 1-7 to 0-7.

Given the might of Donegal’s rearguard, Anthony Thompson could have put the game beyond Kildare minutes later but struck the post from an easy position.

Kildare returned fire with an Eoghan O’Flaherty free and then a marvellous James Kavanagh effort from the outside of his left boot.

And it was O’Flaherty who forced extra time when he punished Rory Kavanagh for fouling his brother Morgan in the 94th minute.

McGuinness knew the opposition were always going to finish strong. “It was a wee bit disappointing but not overly because we know Kildare’s form.

“Against us in the league in Letterkenny (with) 69 minutes gone we were four points up but it ended a draw. They never give up either and that is why I take a lot of enjoyment out of this victory.”

Of course, had Tomás O’Connor been awarded what appeared to be a genuine goal in the 40th minute Kildare mightn’t have had to fight back.

After a dour first-half which Kildare went in 0-5 to 0-3 ahead, O’Flaherty kicked another score and then John Doyle kicked for a point. The ball struck the post falling down to O’Connor who palmed it past Paul Durcan. The goal umpire raised his green flag but then agreed with Coldrick that his decision should be overturned.

In fairness, the umpires looking at Doyle’s kick would have had no idea whether O’Connor, who was not in the parallelogram, had impinged on the area, although the player himself might have protested a little stronger.

McGuinness had no clue about the flashpoint either. “I’m going to do an Arsène Wenger on that one and say I didn’t see it,” he said.

Only one team rallied from it and they weren’t wearing white. In four minutes, Donegal rattled off three scores coming from Murphy, Ryan Bradley and Dermot Molloy.

For McGuinness, Bradley is the testament to the Donegal effort. “This time last year Ryan Bradley was 15 stone 5 — he is 13 stone 8 now, he has transformed his body and his life just to live to play football.”

After a poor Durcan kick-out, Alan Smith responded to put Kildare ahead again but then Cassidy fired over the first and the lesser of his two long-rangers. The stage was then set for Toye’s goal. The substitute made his presence felt again in extra-time before Cassidy’s majestic finish.

Four weeks now to their All-Ireland semi-final, McGuinness is looking forward to the break.

“We haven’t been able to reflect on the Ulster final either. It was a huge thing for this group of players, psychologically it was an absolutely huge achievement for them and they will cherish that medal.

“A lot of the media said we were done and dusted with our season because we had won the Ulster championship and that we weren’t going to move on but that wasn’t the way it transpired.

“That came from the players, they refocused very quickly themselves.”

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

Scorers for Kildare: E O’Flaherty 0-5 (4fs), A Smith 0-2, E Callaghan, B Flanagan, P O’Neill, J Kavanagh, R Sweeney, G White, E Bolton 0-1 each.

Subs for Donegal: M Murphy for McBrearty, E McGee for McGrath (both 27), M McElhinney for Gallagher (38), D Molloy for Hegarty (41), C Toye for McFadden (58), K Rafferty for McElhinney (et), Gallagher for Rafferty (81), Molloy for McFadden (ht et), McBrearty for Bradley (88).

Subs for Kildare: A Smith for O’Connor (41), O Lyons for Mac Lochlainn, R Sweeney for Flanagan (both 61), M Conway for O’Neill (65), G White for Doyle (et), F Dowling for Kavanagh (75), Doyle for E O’Flaherty (77), Flanagan for Kelly (inj. 86).

Referee: David Coldrick (Meath).