All-Ireland SFC Quarter-final replay/Donegal 0-14 Galway 0-11: They said it could not happen twice. And in a way, they were half-right. This time, on beautiful evening in Castlebar, Donegal, the great puzzle of the 2003 All-Ireland championship, did not look back.
With their unique bag of thrifty play, unorthodox beauty and heart-stopping, heroic defence, Donegal stretched and finally defeated one of the finest Galway teams to have emerged in four decades. It has to rank as Brian McEniff's finest managerial achievement since 1992 and the stunning manner in which this season has turned gold for the hotelier possibly makes yesterday evening in Castlebar even sweeter.
McEniff's return to management is fast becoming the best GAA story of the summer. Content for almost a decade to enjoy Donegal games as the most famous peaked cap in the crowd, McEniff, a grandfather and balladeer, found himself thrown in with the county's hip-hop generation in the bitter months of January. They knew him as a fabled name from the past; he knew about two of their names.
It is safe to say, as they rolled back up the sunny roads from Castlebar to what promised to be an emotional homecoming, that they know each other a little better now.
The reward for this tense and pulsating victory is a date against the All-Ireland champions Armagh, a team as fastidious and stern as Donegal are cavalier and expressive. The more Donegal keep winning, the less the pundits seem to believe in them and so Joe Kernan's team will enter into this game as staggeringly heavy favourites. It will make no difference to McEniff, who is coyly delighted that his team has been so firmly locked outside the gates of fashion.
It has been a tough beginning to John O'Mahony's new term as manager. If, as has been widely anticipated, Galway's old guard elects to depart, then next year will be one of delicate balancing. However, this loss gives a team fancied by many the impetus to close in on a third All-Ireland with a new sense of motivation. Those who decry O'Mahony's Galway as finished after this will almost certainly be proven wrong over the next 12 months.
It is true, however, that the furnace has dimmed since the vintage year of 2001. If this is a permanent state the precise reason why is something only the Galway team can answer. On other days, they would have won this match.
Down 0-9 to 0-6 at the break, they teetered on the brink of a black hole as Donegal established an - 0-13 to 0-6 lead with 20 minutes remaining, before mounting a gallant if futile comeback. Padhraic Joyce, maligned over the past six days, hit a free and his only point from play; Micheál Meehan landed a 50 and then Michael Donnellan pitched another free to leave just a goal between the sides. The Donegal team existed on heart alone during this slow, steady comeback.
The last 10 minutes seemed to pass in slow motion for the massive Donegal support that filled the gallery in scorching Mayo. As is their way, Donegal lived on the edge. A high Seán De Paor shot clipped off the post and slipped through Micheál Meehan's hands with 20 minutes to go. Tony Blake threw his body to smother a Meehan shot that looked destined for the goal with 10 minutes left. Five minutes later, Blake raced out to try to deny Matt Clancy. The Galway man fired a clean and true shot that met Shane Carr's diving body just as it was about to cross the goalline.
By this stage, McEniff must have been seeing ghosts of 1983, with maroon men pouring forward in search of a goal. But he is managing a team too young to remember 1983. Again and again, the Donegal men lifted the siege but at this stage were too tired and nerve-racked to build the kind of attacks that enabled them to lead from the start.
For the last 21 minutes, Donegal did not score. It is not a statistic that will bother them. The most sobering passage in the game from their perspective came late in the first half, when Galway repeatedly opened them up. Kevin Walsh, grand and admirable once more, was untouchable for a period at midfield, with Joe Bergin a close second.
In 90 seconds alone, they might have had 1-2, with Padhraic Joyce so unlucky when a delightfully weighted low shot clipped the wrong side of the post. Forwards thrive on confidence and for all the criticism Joyce has suffered, never once did he hide here. The prodigious Donnellan responded with three points, including one dynamic burst along Donegal's left wing that carried with it a poignant afterglow. Late on, however, the Dunmore legend ran out of steam.
With time running out, O'Mahony turned to names that lit up yesteryear. Ja Fallon went in to try his luck on the human blot of fly-paper that is Niall McCready and found him as sticky as Derek Savage before him. McCready had a splendid game, along with Barry Monaghan in the heart of the Donegal defence and Kevin Cassidy.
There was no secret to Donegal's plan. They worked like demons to hurry Galway into poor decisions and then wove pretty and frantic patterns forward to allow Brendan Devenney and Adrian Sweeney work the magic. Again, the front two hit 0-9 between them but the game's key scores came from the elegant Michael Hegarty, a classy and under-stated player. Brian Roper ran himself to the point of exhaustion and John Gildea was ever wise and calm during a number of horribly tense situations.
Galway departed the All-Ireland with exceptional grace. Part of their annoyance stemmed from the fact that this quarter-final occasion in general was so casually derided and there was a sense that they would take vicarious pleasure if Donegal tilt onwards, boats against the tide.
DONEGAL: 1. T Blake; 2. N McCready, 3. R Sweeney, 29. D Diver; 5. S Carr, 6. B Monaghan, 7. K Cassidy; 8. J Gildea, 20. B Boyle; C Toye (0-2), 13. B Roper, 12. P McGonigle; 11. M Hegarty (0-2), 14. A Sweeney (0-4, 2 frees), 15. B Devenney (0-5, 3 frees). Subs: J Haran for P McGonigle ( 58 mins), C McFadden for B Devenney (63 mins), K Rafferty for M Hegarty (67 mins), J McGuinness for C Toye (70 mins).
GALWAY: 16. A Keane; 2. K Fitzgerald, 3. G Fahey, 4. M Comer; 5. M Meehan, 6. R Fahey, 7. K Brady; 8. K Walsh (0-2), 9. J Bergin; 10. P Clancy (0-1), 14. P Joyce (0-2, 1 free), 13. D Savage (0-1), 12. M Donnellan (0-3, 1 free), 15. M Meehan (0-2, 1 50), 11. M Clancy. Subs: 19. S De Paor for 7. G Brady (40 mins), J Fallon for D Savage (45 mins), N Joyce for P Clancy (68 mins).
