Dublin dig deep to earn final passage

DON’T adjust your eyes — the scoreline isn’t a mistake.

Yesterday’s second All-Ireland semi-final will go down in the annals as the day Dublin finally, at the fifth time of asking, broke their 16-year All-Ireland final duck.

Nothing else, really. The fare was of such a cynical and negative material it will quickly be dismissed.

Each side shooting more wides than points — Dublin’s 10 to Donegal’s nine — was just one symptom of an utterly forgettable game.

Had Donegal won, some would have had Jim McGuinness up for charges against the game of football. Playing 14 men behind the ball is certainly anathema to the traditionalists but it was so close to bringing the Ulster champions to a first All-Ireland final in 19 years.

What will be overlooked is the sheer work rate of his players as limited as they were in attack. Also, just how poor Dublin were in the opening half when they registered just two points — both from frees.

Ultimately, Donegal found their tank was empty going into the final quarter. Karl Lacey’s substitution through injury in the 42nd minute deprived them of a springboard from the half-back line but they had truly run themselves ragged. Ironically similar to how Dublin lost last year’s semi-final to Cork, they were out on the feet in the closing stages and presented the opposition with holes in a previously miserly rearguard.

Dublin, to their credit, looked a different proposition with half-time substitute Kevin McManamon constantly asking questions of Donegal with a multitude of hard runs.

Inside him, Bernard Brogan, who was making the most of the scraps he foraged for himself, was a class apart.

Dublin’s two scores in the first half, which Brogan converted, came from frees he won after being fouled by Neil McGee and David Walsh. It was his crossed pass to Bryan Cullen to score in the 62nd minute that put Dublin in front for the first time in the game.

Four minutes before that and after Dublin had hauled back Donegal to within the bare minimum, Diarmuid Connolly’s sending off threatened to undo all their good work.

Marty Boyle appeared to make a meal of it but the St Vincent’s man’s hand connected with the Donegal substitute’s face, which is all but certain to rule him out of next month’s final.

The fact is it was all so unnecessary. Connolly had initially won a free in a scoreable position after Kevin Cassidy was adjudged to have fouled him as he attempted to pick up the ball.

Losing a player who scored seven points from play in an All-Ireland quarter-final is a significant blow for Dublin going into an All-Ireland final against Kerry but yesterday it didn’t matter a jot. With Donegal set up the way they were and refusing to deviate from it, Connolly’s absence had little or no impact.

Instead, McGuinness found himself replacing two substitutes — Boyle and Michael Hegarty — in an attempt to hit back at Dublin.

But finding themselves behind, Donegal couldn’t find the required gear. Brogan added his fourth free of the game in the 68th minute to double Dublin’s cushion.

McManamon could have put three between the teams two minutes into injury-time but instead looked to find the unmarked Michael Darragh Macauley on the edge of the square.

However, his misdirected pass was saved by Paul Durcan and could have been rued had Donegal’s last-gasp attack provided a goal.

It didn’t, though, and Dublin had at last attained September football. And yet there was a sense of anti-climax around their camp afterwards.

Maybe some of it was brought on by fatigue. Connolly’s straight red card and Paul Flynn’s serious-looking leg injury may have also added to it. They had truly been in a battle, one blotted with some of the worst aspects of Gaelic football such as systematic fouling and time wasting.

Donegal weren’t the only guilty party. Barry Cahill was fortunate to be just handed a yellow card in the 33rd minute after a late challenge on Lacey, which may have contributed to the Donegal man’s early departure.

The foul was indicative of just how frustrated Dublin were in the first half. Altogether they clocked up eight wides as they either took wrong options or were hounded by the Donegal hoard. Brogan’s frees were all they could muster to the opposition’s four, three of them coming from play after a ninth minute Colm McFadden free.

McFadden rounded off Donegal’s scoring for the half four minutes before the interval with an outside of the boot effort and was on the scoresheet again seconds into the new half following a driving Michael Murphy run. But after swapping frees with Stephen Cluxton to restore Donegal’s three-point lead, it was all Dublin.

Even if they were continuing to commit silly fouls, Lacey’s absence had made life easier for Pat Gilroy’s side. Brogan found his range after being upended by McGee in the 51st minute and Cluxton, who kicked three wides, followed with a 45.

McManamon’s 60th minute point, Dublin’s first from play, to level matters gave the first hint of a definite crack in Donegal’s resistance.

So often the fall guys, Dublin didn’t need to be prompted to expose it.

Scorers for Dublin: B Brogan 0-4fs, S Cluxton 0-2 (1 45, 1f), K McManamon, B Cullen 0-1 each.

Scorers for Donegal: C McFadden 0-4 (2fs), R Bradley, K Cassidy 0-1 each.

Subs for Dublin: P McMahon for O’Carroll (inj. 26), K McManamon for Cahill (ht), E O’Gara for McCarthy (61), E Fennell for Bastick (65), R McConnell for Flynn (inj. 68).

Red card: D Connolly (straight, 58).

Subs for Donegal: M Hegarty for C Toye (ht), M Boyle for Lacey (inj. 42), M McElhinney for Hegarty (64), P McBrearty for Boyle (66).

Referee: Maurice Deegan (Laois).