Donegal romance with qualifiers continues

Donegal 3-15, Down 2-10

Donegal's blossoming romance with the All-Ireland Qualifiers continues.

For the second successive season they have charmed their way down the highways, byways and back doors of Ireland, and once again they find themselves back in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Brian McEniff, an All-Ireland winning manager in 1992, certainly has worked wonders with a squad that was in disarray when he reluctantly took over at the start of the year.

Last night it was all smiles, despite a recurrence of a knee injury which could keep attacker Brendan Devenney out of next weekend's quarter-final tie.

Down made a promising start, but in the sixth minute Donegal crafted a memorable goal.

Started deep in defence by Mark Crossan, the move gathered pace once it reached John Gildea, with Devenney and Adrian Sweeney combining with precision to send the inrushing Michael Hegarty into fire a low shot past Michael McVeigh at the far post.

Devenney was on fire in those opening stages, hitting two fine points from play, and despite the fine efforts of Liam Doyle, Donegal controlled the central sector through Gildea, Stephen McDermott and Jimmy McGuinness.

With Aidan O'Prey playing as an emergency full forward in the absence of the suspended Dan Gordon, the Down attack lacked cohesion, and on the one occasion that they did threaten Tony Blake's goal, Niall McCready intercepted superbly when Ronan Murtagh's cross from the right looked tailor-made for the lurking Shane Ward

Brian McEniff's men appeared to be coasting at 1-5 to 0-2 with little more than 10 minutes of the first half to play.

But suddenly the Mourne volcano erupted, and a three-minute blast produced a goal and two points to narrow the gap to a point.

Shane Ward ran on to a knock-down from O'Prey to finish to the net from close range, and points followed from Ronan Sexton and substitute Daniel Hughes.

But Donegal responded with a frenzied finish to the half, ripping through the Down defence with alarming ease.

The pick of a run of four points was Sweeney's thumping long range effort, and the half finished in a personal disaster for Down's 'keeper McVeigh when he somehow fumbled Christy Toye's dipping effort from distance into his own net.

Donegal led by 2-9 to 1-5 at the break, and when McDermott raced through for a delightful solo goal 10 minutes into the second half, they were on their way back to Croker for the second successive year.

Benny Coulter pulled back a goal for Down in the 53rd minute, finishing Ronan Sexton's cross to the net from close range, and half back Brendan Grant made an impressive contribution with three well taken points.

But Donegal, with Raymond Sweeney and Shane Carr solid at the back, were always able to deliver a meaningful response, and Sweeney just couldn't miss.

In the end, it was easy for Donegal, and they finished with real style, Gildea and Hegarty rounding off a sound afternoon's work with sweet points.