Donegal 2-11 Tyrone 1-8:This result and all its repercussions - including the complete dismantling of Tyrone - probably completes the argument that Donegal are the best team in the country right now. Unbeaten in four games, and the only team across Division One with the complete winning record, they are proving themselves intensely competitive in what is supposed to be the most competitive league in years.

And while Saturday night in Omagh may not be recalled in the final summary of 2007, it may yet have a bearing on it - especially with the recent trend of teams doing well in the league and the subsequent championship. Like global warming it's not a trend everyone is convinced about, yet it can't be written off either - and Donegal are definitely taking this league by storm.

"It was a big one for us to come here and prove we had learnt some lessons from the defeat in the McKenna Cup three weeks ago," said coach Brian McIver. "And I have to say I am very pleased at the way the team responded, and it does set up the rest of the season for us.

"We've tried to adjust things slightly. There are times when Donegal's natural short build-up works a treat, but we are trying to vary it, and use some long ball as well. Our tackling was also good, and has improved on last year. It's still early days though. We're still only putting the nucleus of this team together, because it's still early March, and a long way to go to the championship."

Points of the booted variety were something that came easy to Donegal on the surprisingly slick Healy Park surface. Their forwards are big, mobile, and devastatingly accurate. Rory Kavanagh hit three powerful points from centre forward while Colm McFadden and Brendan Devenney shared spot-kicking duties with equal success.

Their midfield is simply a tower of strength, with Neil Gallagher and Kevin Cassidy rivalling only each other for distribution and hard work. And defensively, Donegal are what you'd call very annoying. At no stage did they give a Tyrone player any space on the ball, surrounding him with three or even four bodies and invariably leaving him dispossessed of ball and spirit.

It wasn't all one-way traffic, and Tyrone enjoyed a lead of 1-2 to 0-2 after 12 minutes during which Enda McGinley briefly scorched that defence and produced a superb goal. Once parity was restored on 23 minutes the game soon become a showcase for Donegal's talent, the highlights being Christy Toye's thundering goal on 29 minutes (having just come on as a substitute) and McFadden's neatly buried penalty early in the second half for the crowding out of Devenney - the score which effectively killed off Tyrone's challenge, leaving them eight points in arrears.

In the end, Donegal effectively beat Tyrone at their own game.

Mickey Harte must have realised that as he attempted to put some meaning on his team's defeat - which follows a similarly crushing one from Cork. He wasn't making any excuses, not even the loss for six weeks of Seán Cavanagh with a foot injury.

"It's not about who's missing," he said. "It's about who's there. We have to get the best out of the players that are there. Every team has to deal with injuries and loss of form and things like that, and it's the teams that cope with that best will succeed better than others. At the minute we're not coping very well. We have to examine out conscience and see what we can do, and bit by bit we'll try to deal with it.

"I'm always concerned when you're beaten, and the more you get beaten by obviously the degree of concern raises. But I'm a realist as well. I can tear my hair out, or what's left of it, over this, or I can look to the future. And the future demands a lot of work from all of us. We were in a good enough position early on, but gave away some frees. We went eight points down and it was damage limitation after that. And we didn't even do a good job of that."

Tyrone must go to Limerick and Kerry next, and then finish with Mayo, and after such a promising start their league campaign is in danger of falling off the tracks. For Donegal the concluding three rounds can't come quick enough.

DONEGAL: P Durcan; N McGee, P Campbell, K Lacey; P McConigley, B Monaghan, B Dunnion; N Gallagher, K Cassidy; J McLoone, R Kavanagh (0-3), B Roper; C McFadden (1-4, three frees, one penalty), B Devenney (0-3, frees), C Bonner (0-1). Subs: C Toye (1-0) for McLoone (28 mins); M Doherty for Roper (55 mins); L Thompson for McFadden (69 mins); A Sweeney for Bonner (70 mins).

TYRONE: P McConnell; R McMenamin, C McGinley, M McGee; D Harte (0-1), C Gormley, D Carlin; P Donnelly (0-1), K Hughes; B Dooher (0-2, one sideline), E McGinley (1-0), D Treanor; M Penrose, S O'Neill (0-2, both frees), C McCullagh. Subs: J McMahon for McGee (26 mins); P Quinn (0-1) for C McGinley (35 mins, inj); P Rouse for Treanor (half time); G Cavlan (0-1,free) for McCullagh (56 mins).

Referee: D Coldrick (Meath).