Gaelic Games

Donegal hold their ground and pole position

Louth take goal chances but still come up short in Ballyshannon

Colm McFadden: seven points, two from play
Colm McFadden: seven points, two from play
Mon Mar 31 2014 - 09:27

Donegal 1-19
Louth 3-7


Donegal mixed the good and the bad as they remained at the top of their division with victory over Louth in Fr Tierney Park, Ballyshannon.

Donegal had a comfortable opening half, scoring more in the 35 minutes than they did in the entire game away to Down in the last match they played.

It was something of a point fest as Louth just couldn’t get a hand on the Donegal forwards. They were not helped by two black cards, the first on three minutes when Dessie Finnegan was penalised and, just before the break, Eoin O’Connor was dismissed after hauling down Colm McFadden.

Christy Toye and Rory Kavanagh hit two points each while half-backs Anthony Thompson and Declan Walsh also found the target.

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Colm McFadden hit four and Michael Murphy two as Donegal led by 0-13 to 0-1 after 30 minutes.

Huge gaps
Louth supporters did get something to celebrate in the final minutes as Paddy Keenan bundled home a goal to leave his side trailing by 0-13 to 1-1 at the break.

The second half seemed to be going the same way until Louth struck for two goals in a minute from Paddy Keenan and Brian White while exposing huge gaps in the Donegal defence.

The goals cut the lead to three points – 0-16 to 3-4 – but Donegal regained composure with David Walsh firing their goal almost instantly and Colm McFadden and Michael Murphy tagging on three points to see them home.

For Donegal man of the match, Rory Kavanagh, there was plenty to ponder. “It was tough. We made it hard on ourselves there in the end. We gave away a couple of sloppy goals which brought them right back in the game and you could see that it lifted them,” said Kavanagh.

“We would have been very happy with the performance up until we conceded the first goal. We will have to look at that. Other than that we tagged on, I think, 12 or 13 points to one at some stage, so you would be happy with that.”

Donegal now travel to Armagh on Sunday next needing a draw to make sure of promotion to the top flight.

DONEGAL: P Durcan; E McGee, N McGee, K Lacey; Declan Walsh (0-1), L McLoone, A Thompson (0-1); R Kavanagh (0-2), C Toye (0-3); M McHugh, D Molloy (0-1), O Mac Niallais; C McFadden (0-7, 0-5 frees), M Murphy (0-4,0-3 frees), P McBrearty. Subs: R McHugh for Lacey (half-time), David Walsh (1-0) for McBrearty (52 mins), G McFadden for Kavanagh (68 mins), L Keaney for Thompson (70 mins).
LOUTH: N Gallagher; P Rath, D Finnegan, J O'Brien; G O'Hare, D Crilly, A Reid; P Keenan (2-0), B Donnelly; P Reilly, B White (1-3, 0-2 frees, 0-1 45), S Campbell; A McDonnell, E O'Connor, S Lennon (1-3, 0-2 frees). Subs: D O'Hanlon for Finnegan (3 mins, black card), C Judge for Campbell (21 mins), B Duffy (0-1) for O'Connor (30 mins, black card); D Byrne for Judge (30 mins), L Shevlin for Reilly (49 mins), D Clarke for Donnelly (63 mins).
Referee: M Higgins (Fermanagh).