National Football League Division One Final: Donegal 0-13, Mayo 0-10After a week or so of hand wringing about the competition and its allure, yesterday's Allianz NFL final at Croke Park ended on a feel-good vibe with Donegal exuberantly celebrating the county's first win in this competition with as heart-felt a lap of honour as any league final has seen in a long time.

Even Croke Park officials shared the love, relieved that a crowd of nearly 30,000 (29,433) had turned up and spared head office an inquest into a really low attendance and why the match had been fixed for the venue.

The match itself isn't likely to be re-issued on dvd any time soon, but it was an absorbing tactical struggle and went to wire in the second half, as Mayo pulled level with their opponents but couldn't quite hit the front.

The three winning scores came in the seemingly endless expanse of injury-time - flagged at eight minutes, largely composed of the time that elapsed after Ciarán Bonner had been pole-axed in a collision with David Heaney before being eventually stretchered off - but comprised the appropriate winning margin of a well-deserved victory.

Not alone were Donegal worthy winners of yesterday's final, but over the past two and a half months they have more than earned the title, having gone through the harder first-division section with the loss of just one point and finished the campaign with that draw against Limerick as the only blemish on their record.

Before the throw-in there was a flurry of changes. Players who had been announced as injured reappeared, with Paddy McConagley and Brendan Devenney passing late fitness tests for Donegal to oust their selected replacements, Thomas Donoghue and Kevin McMenamin.

Mayo had picked their captain, Kevin O'Neill, despite a widespread consensus that he wouldn't start. He didn't and was replaced by the veteran James Nallen.

Donegal played the customary two-man full-forward line, placing Devenney and Colm McFadden on the inside and withdrawing Michael Hegarty. Mayo decided to let full back James Kilcullen do the wandering, but he struggled to cope with the practised Hegarty and was called ashore in under 20 minutes.

Devenney and McFadden caused all sorts of mayhem in the Mayo defence, as Keith Higgins and Liam O'Malley struggled to stay with their men, but the damage was done by Brian Roper, switched from the 40 to right-wing forward before the start, who kicked three points from play in just over 25 minutes.

Eventually, Donegal's full backs got to grips and Devenney's injury began to hamper his efforts so that he was was replaced on the half hour but while he was on, the Letterkenny man who has been the team's top scorer this campaign, made an impact and set up scores for McFadden and Kevin Cassidy.

For Mayo, Nallen went to centrefield with Pat Harte moving to the forwards and the move worked well with Mayo competing well in the middle and Nallen taking some excellent primary possession from kick-outs.

But the attack was overall too muted and laboured to create consistent attacking positions. Andy Moran was consistently the most menacing and attracted the attentions of four markers during the afternoon, but the team lacked the cutting edge to put away what sporadically came their way.

All told, the team managed one point from play in the second half.

Conor Mortimer was excellent from frees and his dead-ball kicking kept Mayo alive in the second half, but in general play he was subdued. Despite these problems, John O'Mahony's side actually conjured up three decent goal chances, any one of which might have turned the match.

Set up by David Heaney's precise ball, Moran wriggled in from the right corner and managed to work the ball to Mortimer, who didn't see Ger Brady coming in on his shoulder and took the point, Mayo's first, in the 14th minute.

A quarter of an hour later Brady returned the compliment when he cut into the Donegal square and skipped past the final challenge only to see Paul Durcan save the shot with Mortimer also converging on goal.

The third chance came on the hour when Moran came in on the end of a slick movement started by Nallen and continued by Aidan Higgins and Brady, but shot high for a point when the goal was on.

The Connacht champions must have been happy enough to get to half-time only two points in arrears, 0-5 to 0-7, considering the pressure they had been under.

Further changes were made after the break. Kevin O'Neill came in and strengthened the attack, although he suffered on a particularly slippery patch of turf in the Hill 16-Hogan Stand quadrant. Starting today, the pitch undergoes an extensive maintenance programme.

Donegal's tendency to foul and Mortimer's accuracy chipped away at the lead and at the start of the final quarter Mayo pulled level for the first time since the third minute.

Moran's 60th-minute point tied up the match again at 0-10 each. At that stage, Mayo looked to have the momentum but the announcement that injury-time would last for eight minutes seemed to drain the urgency out of them, whereas Donegal focused more tightly.

Brian McIver must have been pleased that the three decisive points were scored by replacements he introduced in the second half. And what scores they were.

Rory Kavanagh broke down the left from centrefield and drove the first in the 72nd minute. Two minutes later, Eamonn McGee came down the same flank and struck over a left-foot shot from about 30 metres and, finally, in the 77th minute, the crafty Adrian Sweeney plucked up a bobbling ball on the right wing, swivelled and drove the last point of an historic afternoon.

DONEGAL:P Durcan; N McGee, K Lacey, P Campbell; B Dunnion, B Monaghan, P Conagley; N Gallagher, K Cassidy (0-1); B Roper (0-3), C Bonner (0-2), C Toye; C McFadden (0-3, one 45 and one free), B Devenney, M Hegarty. Subs: K McMenamin (0-1) for Devenney (30 mins); T Donoghue for McConagley, E McGee (0-1) for N McGee (both 47); R Kavanagh (0-1) for Gallagher (59); A Sweeney (0-1) for Bonner (64).

MAYO:D Clarke; J Kilcullen, K Higgins, L O'Malley; E Devenney, BJ Padden, P Gardiner; J Nallen, D Heaney; P Harte (0-2), G Brady, A Dillon (0-1, a free); A Moran (0-1), C Mortimer (0-6, five frees), M Conroy. Subs: A Higgins for Kilcullen (19 mins); K O'Neill for Conroy (42); T Howley for A Higgins, A Kilcoyne for Dillon (both 71); A Campbell for Nallen (75).

Referee:J Bannon (Longford).