SECOND DEFEAT CASTS DOUBTS ON DONEGAL (TIME TO BRING FORWARD THE
MURPHY QUESTION)
Due to other commitments and, in any case, the lack of a match ticket,
I wasn’t among the 7,142 people who squeezed into O’Donnell Park for
Sunday’s tussle with Roscommon but I saw enough on TG4’s deferred
coverage to see that the visitors were well worth their win.
This is undoubtedly a completely different Roscommon set-up from
recent years – indeed most years – and they look like a team who could
mount a serious, if ultimately unrewarded, challenge during the real
event in the summer months.
Kevin McStay, the man behind this revival along with Fergal O’Donnell,
remarked in the post match interview room that his team had dreamt of
“beating Donegal up in Donegal and now we’ve done it.
“Coming into the game, and I’ll be dead on honest, we’d have been very
realistic that we could have got a scorching today if we were a little
bit off,” said the Roscommon boss and former Mayo great.
That never looked like happening and it was the home side who looked
likely to be victims of a scorching on an afternoon when they couldn’t
match the hunger of the visitors.
It appeared that Rory Gallagher’s men still hadn’t recovered from the
brutal events in Tralee which appeared to, quite literally, knock them
off their stride since those opening three wins in Division 1.
And now we’re back to doubting this team and it’s ability to progress
into the Championship season and, more significantly, through it to
the business end.
After that impressive victory over Mayo in Ballybofey, there was
genuine belief in this quarter that the current side, complete with
solid experience and youthful exuberance, could be masterminding a
summer of rich reward.
True, the sending off of key man, Odhran MacNiallais didn’t help the
cause last Sunday but even before then the likes of the Creggs, Cathal
and Fintan, and Ciaran Murtagh were keeping Roscommon ticking over.
I have to say – and others have in truth beaten me to it – I still
can’t understand how Michael Murphy plays so deep at times when he is
an out and out full- forward who can score goals and set up scores
from a central position. Surely that is where he is at his most
effective so why not deploy him there? He’s the very best in his
recognised position in the country and opponents such as last Sunday’s
would surely have been delighted to see him operating in the middle of
the park for much of the game.
Safe from relegation, Donegal face hugely tricky games in Dublin and
Monaghan after next weekend’s break. It might just be the time to
bring the big Glenswilly man up where he belongs and show defences
just what he is all about.
HARPS DRAW A BLANK AGAIN:
According to the results chart for the League of Ireland in Tuesday’s
‘Belfast Telegraph’, Finn Harps drew 1-1 with Shamrock Rovers in
Ballybofey the previous evening.
On the merits of the respective performances that would have been a
justified outcome but football doesn’t do merit at times and against a
side yet to concede in the opening stages of the season, there was a
big blank zero against Harps name (with the notable exception for
readers of the ‘Tele’).
Ollie Horgan’s men can indeed consider themselves unlucky not to have
secured a draw out of this one but that second half penalty – rightly
rewarded despite the protests of home goalkeeper, Richard Brush –
condemned them to their second successive defeat following the 0-3
reversal at Dundalk on Friday night.
A distinct lack of creativity in the final third for much of the
evening was to prove their undoing on Monday night but to their credit
they fought to the finish and might even have had a penalty of their
own in the dying embers of the six minutes added on when substitute
Mickey Funston appeared to have been bundled over in the right side of
the area.
After a somewhat sluggish – no doubt due to lack of match fitness –
performance in the opening game against Derry City (irrespective of
the goal he scored), Ryan Curran looked a lot sharper against Rovers
but was probably over shadowed by strike partner, David Scully, who
was the engine room in that department.
Tony McNamee, following his man of the match performance against the
Candystripes, was another to impress particularly in the opening half
while the emergence of Kevin McHugh from the substitutes bench in the
second half saw him fulfil a new role in midfield which was
instrumental in adding creativity where none had been before.
Meanwhile, Ethan Boyle, occupying the injured Ciaran Coll’s slot at
left full-back, was generally impressive and assured.
His team-mates in the back-line were more than a match for Danny North
& Co. until the Englishman took advantage of a slack header to race
through and tumble over the advancing Brush for the decisive
spot-kick.
I can’t see this Rovers team claiming a league title this year though
they will be hard to beat (and, I’d suggest, hard to watch too).
As for Harps an early season crisis on the injury front has left a
reasonably strong looking squad pruned to not quite the barest of
bones but close.
The good news is that defender Coll, my player of the year for last
season, may not be out for as long as first feared even if still a few
weeks away from a return to action after being stretchered off at
Oriel Park.
But Barry Molloy (estimated time of arrival back into the team: eight
weeks) and Sean Houston (a month) remain sidelined.
What is it about players who once lined out with Derry City and arrive
at Finn Park prone to almost immediate injury? Remember Gary
‘Sicknote” Beckett…?
CARNDONAGH BOYS A CLASS APART:
At half-time at Finn Park on Monday night, the track-suited squad of
footballers from Carndonagh Community School paraded around the pitch
with the trophy they had won in Dublin a few days beforehand.
To get to the final of the F.A.I. Schools Senior Cup competition was
one thing – to win it was another matter entirely but the boys from
Carn did it with a 2-1 victory over Presentation College from Cork at
Whitehall on Friday.
An outstanding performance from the Inishowen lads who won it in
extra-time with a strike to grace any final from winger, Christy
McLaughlin-Fildara.
He latched onto a pass from Evan Tweed to control the ball perfectly
before drilling a stunning volley into the net. Not the first time he
had the ball in the net during the final – two previous efforts were
ruled but this was the one that counted.
Tweed was also involved in Carndonagh’s opening goal when he was sent
sprawling in the penalty area – Cathal Farren expertly putting his
spot-kick beyond the reach of Cork goalkeeper, Bryan Cotter, to give
the Donegal students the lead midway through the opening half.
An equalizer from their opponents right on the stroke of half-time
might have floored many another team but Carndonagh survived a number
of chances before hitting that winner in the first period of
extra-time.
We’re only into the month of March but we probably already have a hot
candidate for the Team of the Year at the Donegal Sports Star awards.
And here is that team – Houghton, McKinney, Todd, Folan, McEleney,
Tweed, Lafferty, Doherty, Farren, McLaughlin-Fildara, Browne. Subs
used: McLaughlin and McClure.
An extra week off after the Easter holidays is surely the least these
lads and the other squad members deserve!
ULSTER SAYS NO:
Didn’t make it over the Glenshane Pass for the Letterkenny Under-18’s
Ulster League Final in Magherafelt but by all accounts it was a
courageous performance by the men in black and amber who lost narrowly
to Armagh.
A hatful of handling errors and other mistakes didn’t aid their cause
but then neither did a number of decisions by the match referee when
Letterkenny had driven into their opponents’ 22. And then there was
the changing of the goal posts by the Ulster league authorities
half-way through the competition – a decision that allowed Armagh make
it through to last weekend’s Final.
I got chatting to Letterkenny coach, Gordon Curley, yesterday and
while praising Armagh for their overall performance, he was still
gutted at the manner of how it all came about.
“It’s hard not to feel cheated in that the rules were seemingly
changed mid-season without consultation when it was obvious we were
running away with the league. Why this was done will unfortunately
remain a mystery,” he declared.
Though perhaps not a mystery to those in the know and those who might
not look on the likes of Letterkenny R.F.C. as a real Ulster team.
To be fair to Armagh they had brought in former Ulster coach, Brian
McLaughlin, to add some weight to their campaign and his experience
and that of some of the team proved the difference in the end apart
from the three point advantage.
Team captain, Daniel Faulkner, went close to leading Letterkenny to
victory but it wasn’t to be and now Gordon Curley and Denis Faulkner
must lift the heads for next Saturday’s cup clash with Dungannon at
Dave Gallaher Park.
The ultimate prize in that competition, apart from the cup, is a trip
to Ravenhill for the Final.
Perhaps we’ll yet see a trophy bussed over the Glenshane Pass to this
outpost of Ulster.
ATHLETICS TRAILING BEHIND IN RACE OF SPORTS
Athletics continues to be a sport that must always produce the goods
before afforded the publicity its participants deserve and that’s no
less true here in Donegal.
In the three international class events culminating in the Mile
Challenge staged in Letterkenny over the past couple of years, the
attendances have, I’d have to say, been disappointing. Even when our
own Mark English was performing on home ground, only the dedicated few
turned out to see him.
And yet over 7,000 packed into O’Donnell Park last Sunday for
Donegal’s match with Roscommon and over 11,000 for the previous home
N.L. fixture against Mayo at MacCumhaill Park. And crowds of up to
three or four thousand for Finn Harps home matches against Derry City
and Shamrock Rovers in recent days and weeks.
I can never understand why athletics is always the poorer relation
here in Donegal particularly when the county can boast the likes of
English and Brendan Boyce as international acclaimed performers with
the medals to prove it.
It came home to me again when I was reading of the heroics of a
handful of heroic young athletes from this county at the National
Indoors in Athlone at the weekend.
Finn Valley ace, Arlene Crossan, arrived back in her home town of
Letterkenny with a double gold – first in the 400 metres, achieving a
personal best of 57.6 in the process – and first in the long jump.
Joseph Gillespie may be still at primary school – Sessiaghoneill N.S.
in Ballybofey – but he’s now the proud holder of an Irish high jump
record, clearing 1.56m to claim gold in the Under-13 category. Another
Finn Valley A.C. athlete to look out for in future competition.
Lifford Strabane A.C. competitor, Jude McCrossan, meanwhile, also took
home a gold from Athlone in the under-14 high jump.
And then there’s Letterkenny A.C.’s David Smith – an athlete who has a
houseful of medals and added yet another to his tally with gold in the
under-15 800 metres event at the championships in Athlone. And a
richly merited guard of honour by his fellow juveniles to welcome him
back to training last night.
Stars not of the future but of the present and destined for even
greater things both nationally and internationally if form and
commitment has its way.
But how many of you sports lovers out there will turn out to watch them?
RACING CERTAINTY:
And now a tip for Cheltenham. Watch your backs. You may be top of the
Yanarama National League but Forest Green are only two points behind
and can still catch you for the title.
Meanwhile, cousin Ruby (or Walshy on Tuesday in the Champion Hurdle as
we like to call him) is going good to brilliant and reminding us all
that he’s one of racing’s greatest. And that Annie Power ain’t bad
either.
Happy St Patrick’s Day (though speaking personally, I’ve had enough of
shamrocks for now what with 502 of us failing to break the world
record in Letterkenny last Saturday for the formation of a human one
and then the Tallaght Rovers arriving in Ballybofey on Monday night to
leaf (sic!) Harps out of clover…
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