Pain worth it as Murphy and Donegal climb steps to heaven
A matter of seconds after being laid out by an aerial clash while attempting to clear his lines, he was back on his feet.
Better than that, he was dancing as he waltzed away with his team-mates towards the Nally Stand, engulfed in rapture.
Maurice Deegan’s final whistle was his defibrillator, bringing him to his senses in what surely was bliss.
The skipper had certainly played his role in the county bridging the gap to their last and only All-Ireland title in 1992.
His early goal put enough doubt in Mayo’s heads that history of previous September failings was going to repeat itself.
For the likes of Alan Dillon, Keith Higgins and David Clarke, who had been there in 2006 when Kerry obliterated them, there might have been a sense of déjà vu — and who could blame them?
Certainly, when Colm McFadden goaled eight minutes later Mayo were reeling. Even though the goal spawned from a dubious free given against Cillian O’Connor at the other end, the Connacht champions were clearly stuck in the blocks.
With McFadden posting a free just before that, things were looking ominous.
As James Horan summed it up later: “I suppose if you give a team like Donegal a seven-point start at the beginning of the game, it’s going to be very difficult to come back.”
And yet it was Mayo who looked the calmer team in the warm-up. They were out on the pitch first, although the programme for the day stated that Donegal were to enter the field before them.
Had Clarke not stopped McFadden adding a second goal in the 14th minute, Mayo supporters may have well thought Donegal were Kerry in disguise.
But they eventually settled, via a well-taken Kevin McLoughlin point which was followed by an O’Connor free.
Donegal responded through excellent Ryan Bradley and McFadden efforts but Mayo owned the second quarter, tagging on four points.
Lording it in midfield when Aidan O’Shea was in inspirational form and the wing-backs beating their men, Mayo got the foothold they so badly needed.
Donegal, in fairness, provided them with the opportunity. Their foot-passing was particularly shabby while they lost the composure they had been showing when ahead throughout the summer.
“I think the hype got to us today a wee bit,” admitted Jim McGuinness. “I think we had a very good start, we played some good football but I think we forced our own natural game a wee bit.
“I think we forced balls inside. I know we got joy off a ball early in the game and we got a goal out of it but I think we forced ball inside as well from the wrong areas of the pitch.”
McLoughlin was causing issues for Anthony Thompson and his second point in the 26th minute cut the gap to six points.
Fouls by Eamon and then Neil McGee were punished by O’Connor as some indiscipline crept into their usually regimental defence.
A majestic Michael Conroy point narrowed the difference to six before a McFadden free, following a foul by Donal Vaughan on Murphy, ended Donegal’s 16 minutes without a score.
Another well-taken Mayo point, this time from Enda Varley, ended first-half proceedings, giving Mayo hope as they went in 2-4 to 0-7 behind.
Considering how well Donegal had performed in the third “championship” quarter this year, Mayo needed to negate them from the outset of the second half.
While an O’Connor free offset one from McFadden, there were no threats on Paul Durcan’s goal until injury time, when Seamus O’Shea’s off-balance shot was stopped by Mark McHugh.
Frank McGlynn’s 40th-minute score, following a web of passes involving McHugh, was an indication that they had recovered from their earlier fallow period.
A Varley miss from a free in the 43rd minute was the type of inaccuracy that Mayo couldn’t afford. As much as he made up for it with one in the 50th minute, Murphy had bagged one in the meantime.
Varley also won a free in the 52nd minute, which allowed O’Connor to reduce the deficit to three again.
But they never got closer, Barry Moran fouling Murphy and the captain duly putting over the score from distance.
The Glenswilly man did the same again, albeit from a much easier position, in the 59th minute when McFadden was upended by Keith Higgins.
With the gap now five, O’Shea was switched into the full-forward line but it didn’t come to much.
Murphy, on the other hand, was enjoying himself closer to the goal even if he was cursing himself for palming Christy Toye’s pass to him over the bar and not past Clarke.
It was the score thatconvinced the pessimistic among the Mayo support in the 82,269 crowd to head for the exits — but perhaps the more realistic among them too.
Donegal, even though they had coughed up late goals to Kerry and Cork, don’t surrender leads and so it proved.
Richie Feeney and Lee Keegan pointed scores that would be termed as excellent in other circumstances.
But then Neil Gallagher found himself with space to point after a flurry of passes.
With three minutes of injury time to play, Jason Gibbons’ strike between the posts gave Mayo a little faith but hardly enough.
And so it was Murphy who was allowed to live out the dream — the belief — he always had.
“I think every morning you were waking up, you had an All-Ireland in the back of your head and maybe that’s easy to say now,” he said.
“You might find it hard to believe but I think that was the attitude that a hell of a lot of us had.
We’re delighted to have got over the line.”
Scorers for Donegal: M Murphy (3f), C McFadden (4f) 1-4 each; R Bradley, F McGlynn, N Gallagher 0-1 each.
Scorers for Mayo: C O’Connor 0-5 (5f); K McLoughlin, E Varley (1f) 0-2 each; M Conroy, R Feeney, L Keegan, J Gibbons 0-1 each.
Subs for Donegal: David Walsh for Bradley (41); M McElhinney for McBrearty (48); C Toye for McLoone (57); D Molloy for McElhinney (72).
Subs for Mayo: A Freeman for Doherty (50); J Gibbons for Conroy (59); R Feeney for Varley (61); S O’Shea for Moran (70).
Referee: Maurice Deegan (Laois).
