Donegal Town News and Blog

DONEGAL‘S inability to put away teams while on top finally caught up with them in Saturday‘s All Ireland quarter final in Croke Park.
Ciaran Bonner‘s 72nd minute effort almost earned Donegal a deserved draw, however, they should have had the game won long before that.
By the tenth minute Donegal were completely dominating proceedings and led by 1-01 while Cork failed to register a single score. Donegal were solid in defence, dominating midfield, moving the ball well up front but could not turn their possession in to scores.
However, Donegal shot a number of bad wides and repeatedly gave away possession before Cork won a penalty in what was a harsh decision by referee Tomas Quigley. John Hayes poorly struck spot kick was almost saved by Paul Durkan but the ball ended up in the corner of the net and suddenly Cork were back in it.
experience
Speaking after the game a clearly devastated McIver said that his team lacked experience and panicked on the ball. While Leon Thompson has been a revelation for Donegal this year, his inexperience showed midway through the first half when he was put through on goal with only the keeper to beat, he decided to chip the ball over the bar. A goal at that stage would almost certainly have killed off any Cork comeback. Donegal started well with a fine Rory Kavanagh point on the run in the first minute.
Three minutes later Donegal had the ball in the back of the Cork net when a Michael Doherty 45‘ dropped short, Kavanagh broke the ball to the in rushing Christy Toye who fisted to the net. It was a wonder start for McIver‘s men but they failed to turn their dominance into scores and Hayes‘s 10th minute penalty threw them a lifeline.
Cork‘s forwards didn‘t fare much better and only registered their first score from play in the 24th minute before Thompson responded with a wonder score from a seemingly impossible angle. Cork moved the impressive Derek Kavanagh to midfield towards the end of the second half such was the dominance in that sector by Neil Gallagher and Brendan Boyle. Barry Dunnion scored a fine 35m point but Cork responded points from James Masters and Fintan Gull. Despite Donegal dominating all over the park they only led by two points and it was Cork who went in at the break with their tails up. However, even at that stage, it was hard to see Cork pulling anything out of the game but surely Billy Morgan used that as a motivating factor in the dressingroom at half time.
Half time; Donegal 1-05, Cork 1-03

A Doherty free opened the scoring for Donegal in the second half but Ger Spillane, arguably Corks man of the match, ran unchallenged along the end line to fist over the bar a minute later. The midfield dominance started to swing in Cork‘s favour and big Nichloas Murphy caused Donegal countless problems with his high fielding and surging runs. Murphy set up Pearse O‘Neill for the first of three unanswered Cork points before Donegal replied with Barry Monaghan, Doherty and a fine score from substitute Colin Kelly. Shortly after, the ineffective Kavanagh was replaced by Ardara‘s Stephen McHugh. Bonner scored his first point in the 57th minute to give Donegal a one point lead. However, Toye was dispossessed by Murphy as he came out of defence two minutes later and Masters finished the move with a fine point.
This proved to be the turning point in the game and inspired Cork to level the scores a minute later after Sean O‘Brien found himself in acres of space.
Then Toye hit another bad wide before being involved in a fine move with Doherty and Stephen McDermott which ended with the Glenfin man being snuffed out by the Cork defence.
A score at that stage might been enough for Donegal to hang on for a one point victory. Adrian Sweeney, on for Thompson, missed a 35m free two minutes from time before another Murphy and Spillane combination ended with the latter kicking what turned out to be the winning point.
However, Donegal could have had the last say in the last of the four minutes of added time when Doherty stepped up to kick a 47m free. Doherty‘s free lacked distance and was picked up by Bonner who ballooned a shot that looked to going over the bar but it eventually fell into the grateful arms of Cork goalkeeper Alan Quirke.
Most Donegal fans in the Hogan Stand behind the kick thought that the ball was dropping over the bar but it proved to be the last of many missed opportunities in the game and Cork held out for the win.
Best for Cork were Spillane, Murphy and Kavanagh while Lacey, Dunnion and Thompson shone brightly for Donegal.
Donegal: Paul Durcan, Karl Lacy, Eamon McGee, Neil McGee, Barry Monaghan (0-1), Barry Dunnion(0-1), Neil Gallagher, Brendan Boyle, Christy Toye (1-0), Michael Hegarty, Ciaran Bonner (0-1), Rory Kavanagh (0-1), Michael Doherty (0-3, 1 45‘,2f), and Leon Thompson (0-2).
Subs used:
Colin Kelly (0-1) for Hegarty, Stephen McHugh for Kavanagh, Stephen McDermott for Boyle and Adrian Sweeney for Thompson.
Cork: Alan Quirke, Michael Prout, Derek Kavanagh, Kieran O‘Connor, Michael Shields, Ger Spillane (0-2), anthony Lynch, Pearse O‘Neill (0-1), Nicholas Murphy, Sean O‘Brien (0-1), Fintan Gul (0-1), Kevin McMahon (0-1), James Masters (0-3, 2f), Donncha O‘Connor (0-2, 1f), and John Hayes (1p).
Subs used: Gary Murphy for Prout, Conor McCarthy for Gull and Kevin O‘Sullivan for Hayes.
Referee: Tomas Quigley (Dublin)
I thought I’d add this article. Football is over for another while…Taken from the Donegal News website:
http://www.donegalnews.com/gaa.htm