GAELIC GAMES/National Football League Division One A/Dublin 1-11 Donegal 0-13: Well, league controversies are like Ulster All-Ireland wins. You get none for ages and then a whole lot arrive at once. There's a treatise to be written on what happened in Parnell Park yesterday. Brian McEniff is going to write it. The GAC can study it. Meanwhile, the highlights.
Dublin pinched both points at the end of a game stuffed full of good things and from which both sides deserved a little something.
Most of McEniff's epistolary focus will be on the finale when a high ball dropping between Eamon McGee and Jason Sherlock was deemed by the umpire to have gone out for a wide. Sherlock, who undoubtedly got the final touch, appealed that he was outside the endline when he did so and that the ball had come off McGee. Referee Michael Ryan of Limerick agreed and Tomás Quinn closed the argument by popping a match-winning dead ball over the bar.
Donegal's loss might have been easier to swallow if by that stage they hadn't seen a string of yellow cards, a penalty and a dubious point go against them too.
"I was sitting beside Robbie Kelleher in the stand," said McEniff afterwards, "and I saw a point (by Conal Keaney) that was at least two yards wide. That's not fair. There has to be an element of fairness. We deserved at least a point.
"About five minutes before the 45 at the end there was a ball that went clearly off Ciarán Whelan. The linesman gave it the other way. The referee stood beside them and said nothing. If you are going to overrule one, overrule them all.
"Overall a draw would be a fair result. I'd like to say more but certain things preclude me. I will write to the GAC and express my disappointment in the proper channel. We're now facing relegation through no fault of our own."
There was some sympathy available in the Dublin camp. "I thought at the end for the 45 it was a correct decision but we were very lucky earlier to get a point - from where I was it tailed wide," Dublin coach Paul Caffrey conceded. "Then again, there's swings and roundabouts. It's great when things go for you, terrible when they go against you. You have to accept the balance somewhere along the line."
By this morning Donegal will have assembled the many positives from their performance and realised that with Cork and Offaly still to be played there is something salvageable from a league campaign during which they have grown considerably.
In the first half the game had scarcely settled before goalkeeper Paul Durcan and Keaney challenged each other heavily on the edge of the square. Durcan got a yellow card and was replaced by 17-year-old Michael Boyle.
Boyle has played underage soccer for Ireland and three point-blank saves in the second half yesterday suggested McEniff will have a hard time keeping him in Ireland.
Donegal began without Brendan Devenney, Adrian Sweeney, Brendan Boyle and Brian McLoughlin. By the 20th minute they had lost Stephen McDermott to another yellow card. Still they persisted in playing adventurous football, mixing the traditional Donegal obsession with handpassing with a new-found interest in the direct long ball. Colm McFadden cleaned up plenty of the latter and if Ryan Bradley didn't quite live up to advance billing at full forward there were some tantalising glimpses of potential, not least a fine first-half effort which lobbed Stephen Cluxton but came back off the bar.
The scoring was, as they say down at the plastic surgeons, nip and tuck all through the first half but just as the kettle got switched on for tea Donegal created two lovely scores just before the break.
Neil Gallagher and Bradley combined well before feeding Hegarty to put Donegal a point to the good. Then Donegal swept the length of the field, stringing nine handpasses together, before Christy Toye stretched the lead further.
Dublin didn't appear to have the range of punches with which to hit back until they called in rainmakers Sherlock and Senan Connell.
Once Sherlock was in (for the second half) the goal chances began to spill Dublin's way. There was a brief opening flurry of points after the break and then a long ball from Connell found his club-mate in a scoring position. Sherlock, seeing Boyle advancing quickly, flicked a pass to Quinn who looked to place the ball and could scarcely believe it when young Boyle materialised again to turn the ball wide.
A couple of minutes later Sherlock found Keaney, who was felled by full back Raymond Sweeney. Yellow card number three for Donegal and a penalty. Quinn obliged.
Donegal had the next three points but a wasted goal chance from Rory Kavanagh was what they'll remember longest.
A point down coming into the straight. Dublin saw Boyle bring off the last in his trinity of saves before Bryan Cullen burst forward for a point to level the scores and then came that disputed 45.
DUBLIN: S Cluxton; P Griffin, P Christie, S O'Shaughnessy; P Casey, B Cullen (0-1), P Andrews; C Whelan (0-3), D Homan (0-1); C Moran, S Ryan, D Lally; M Vaughan (0-1), C Keaney (0-1), T Quinn (1-4, one penalty, one free, one 45). Subs: S Connell for S Ryan yellow card (26 mins), J Sherlock for M Vaughan (half-time), C Goggins for P Griffin (53 mins), R Cosgrove for Keaney (68 mins).
DONEGAL: P Durcan; D Diver, R Sweeney, E McGee; S Carr, B Monaghan, K Cassidy; N Gallagher, S McDermott (0-1); C Toye (0-4), M Hegarty (0-3), B Roper (0-1), C McFadden (0-2, one free), R Bradley (0-1 a free), R Kavanagh (0-1) Subs: M Boyle for Durcan, yellow card (9 mins), C Lacy for S McDermott, yellow card (18 mins), B Dunnion for Diver (half-time), E Reddin for R Sweeney, yellow card (46 mins), B Devenney for Bradley (54 mins), A Sweeney for B Roper (66 mins)
YELLOW CARDS: Dublin: S Ryan (26 mins); Donegal: P Durcan (9 mins), S McDermott (18 mins), R Sweeney (46 mins).
Referee: M Ryan (Limerick).
