Donegal march on with win over Fermanagh

Donegal 0-11 Fermanagh 1-05, Ballyshannon

Fermanagh went down 0-11 to 1-05 to Donegal in wintry conditions at Ballyshannon.

Donegal were in control for long stretches of this game but a Seamus Ryder goal had them sweating towards the finish.

In what was Brian Roper's record-equalling 147th appearance for the Tir Chonaill men, the hosts took a 0-06 to 0-03 lead into the break.

Odhran Doherty (0-02), Michael Doherty, Kevin McMenamin, Conal Dunne and Neil Gallagher were all on the scoresheet for Donegal.

Fermanagh took the direct route in the opening half, using Ryder as a target man and this led to points for Ryder and Ryan Keenan, with a Daniel Killie free in between.

Roper and McMenamin both bisected the posts to give Donegal an encouraging start to the second half, but Ryder netted for the Ernesiders on 40 minutes after Donegal goalkeeper Paul Durcan failed to gather a scuffed shot from Keenan.

The hosts responded quickly with a brace of points from McMenamin, only for Killie to cut the gap to two points with seven minutes remaining.

Fermanagh had lost Eamon Maguire to a yellow card just before that and try as they might, Donegal proved too strong as a curling Kevin Rafferty point topped off their second win of the campaign.