Donegal’s easy pickings in Armagh Orchard
Armagh folk congregated in the growing belief that half-a-dozen years in the wilderness were behind them. It took Donegal just two minutes to sow debilitating seeds of doubt into that theory. By half-time, home ambitions stretched no further than damage limitation.
This has already been hailed as a statement of intent by the reigning Ulster champions, but it was more than that. This was Ulster’s latest superpower crushing the buds of revolution and claiming payback for all those painful defeats to the Orchard County in the noughties.
The pair’s All-Ireland qualifier meeting in Crossmaglen six years ago has gone down in history as the day their fortunes flipped, but this may taste even sweeter for Donegal, given their victims had fronted up not in a state of wretchedness but with renewed ambition.
Such ideas soon looked fanciful. Donegal were immense, no question about it, but songs of praise for the victors must be counterbalanced by an acknowledgement that Armagh were completely out of tune in almost all areas of the park.
Sloppy in possession, they had an absence of support runners up front and an accompanying limitation in their angles of approach against a fearsome defence, while their own rearguard was powerless against Donegal’s forward line rotation and multiplicity of attacking tactics.
The first hammer blow was less than three minutes in falling: Neil Gallagher collecting an Armagh kick-out and sending it long back from whence it came, to where Paddy McBrearty had only James Morgan and the Armagh keeper for company.
That tactic of isolation worked a treat for much of the afternoon but never better than then when McBrearty collected ahead of his marker and found the net after Matthew McNeice parried his first attempt. “Game over,” said one onlooker. Many more were thinking it.
Few teams look as menacing with a three-point lead as Donegal, even at such an early juncture, and they built on their early buffer by thwarting successive Armagh attacks on their own ‘45’ and striking on the counter.
Donegal kicked long and they attacked at pace with solo runs and balls played through the hand and, by the time the half-time break hovered into view, they had even began to pass the ball around midfield like Barcelona at their tiki taka best.
Whatever they did it was with a sense of purpose and pace that Armagh simply couldn’t match and it made for an Ulster Championship game of unusual passiveness, with just over 30 frees, four yellow cards and a single black card – for Aaron Findon used by referee David Coldrick.
It was a clinical and professional performance, Donegal’s concession of less than 10 frees over the 70 minutes an astonishing example of discipline and cold-hearted diligence in an environment where passions all too often spill over.
Even harder to digest for Armagh was the damage done by a succession of frees kicked by Michael Murphy from well beyond the 45’ which must have made a defence already under considerable pressure feel like it needed to don the kid gloves.
This was intelligent football played by intelligent and talented players.
“In fairness to Donegal, everybody throughout the country would recognise that they have intelligent players,” said manager Rory Gallagher. “Maybe it’s because they play in such windy conditions. Giving away the ball is cruel!” Natural-born footballers, he added. Natural-born killers, too.
By half-time, they led by 1-9 to two points and Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney had already sought to stem the tide with two changes, though Murphy was never chaperoned as he had been so effectively by Tyrone in the preliminary round in Ballybofey.
Strange one, that.
In truth, there were any number of players who could have been singled out for similar treatment: the metronomic sibling pair of Ryan and Mark McHugh, the rampaging Odhran Mac Niallais in midfield and McBrearty who was a superb release valve up front on his own for most of the day.
The second half was superfluous.
Armagh banged away for most of the third quarter, but the only score that counted was Martin O’Reilly’s goal after 45 minutes, which he claimed by rounding the goalkeeper after the ball spilled fortunately into his path when Frank McGlynn was dispossessed.
It wasn’t as if Donegal needed the luck and any suspicion that it wasn’t to be Armagh’s day was confirmed when Jamie Clarke — held scoreless all day — hit the butt of a post and Stefan Campbell found the side-netting with the rebound from mere metres out.
This was, emphatically, to be Donegal’s day.
T Kernan (0-3, 1 free); C McKeever, A Findon, C Rafferty, J Morgan (all 0-1); E Rafferty (0-1 free).
M McNeice; F Moriarty, C Vernon, J Morgan; A Mallon, C McKeever, C Rafferty; A Findon, E Rafferty; T Kernan, M McKenna, A Forker; J Clarke, A Murnin, S Campbell.
M Murray for McKenna (29); K Dyas for Moriarty (31); C O’Hanlon for E Rafferty (52); B Donaghy for Forker (57); E McVerry for Murnin (69); S Harold for Findon (70).
M Murphy (0-5 frees); P McBrearty (1-1); M O’Reilly (1-0); O Mac Niallais (0-2); K Lacey, N Gallagher, M McElhinney (all 0-1).
P McGrath, N McGee, E McGee; F McGlynn, K Lacey, R McHugh; N Gallagher, O Mac Niallais; M McHugh, M McElhinney, M O’Reilly; C Toye, P McBrearty, M Murphy.
A Thompson for E McGee (HT); H McFadden for McBrearty (54); D Walsh for Toye (56); G McFadden for McElhinney (68); E Doherty for O’Reilly (70).
D Coldrick (Meath).
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