Two goals in a minute by Jason McGee and Ryan McHugh have turned the tables in Donegal’s favour against Dublin in Ballybofey.
Donegal scored just two points in the opening half-an-hour, but Rory Gallagher’s side find themselves with a 2-2 to 0-5 lead at the break.
Midfielder McGee fired home on 33 minutes and, with Dublin rocked, McHugh finished for his fifth career goal against the Dubs.
McGee fired home after a passage of play that began with Frank McGlynn making the initial incision.
McGlynn fed McGee, whose tame first shot was kept out by Stephen Cluxton. McGee played across goal and it broke from Martin O’Reilly to Jamie Brennan, who scuffed a shot, only for McGee to steer home.
Seconds later, after Donegal won possession from the kick-out, Brennan fed McHugh to net Donegal’s second, sending Donegal into a scarcely-deserved interval lead.
Darach O’Connor had been named to start, but there was no place for the Buncrana man, with McGlynn coming into the team.
O’Connor continues his recovery from a cruciate injury and still awaits a first Donegal start since the 2014 All-Ireland final against Kerry.
McGlynn was in for Patrick McBrearty, unable to play because of the groin injury sustained in the win over Roscommon.
On a week when Donegal bid a fond and emotional farewell to Neil Gallagher, following confirmation of his injury-enforced retirement on Monday, it was fitting that Jason McGee – one of the new midfielders in the class – kick-started the scoring here.
McGee hoofed over after 30 seconds, but Donegal were soon in defensive mode and Dublin began to take a grip of things.
Shane Carthy leveled things up for the Dubs in the third minute and Dean Rock, moments after pulling a ’45 wide, stroked over a free won by Eoghan O’Gara.
Ciaran Kilkenny and Conor McHugh – who had been booked for an earlier wrestle with Paddy McGrath – put Dublin 0-4 to 0-1 ahead and Donegal were finding holes hard to find.
Jamie Brennan, who cut a lone figure close to the Dublin goal, dropped one long-range effort short and Neil McGee was perhaps the wrong man in the right place when he shot at Cluxton.
Ciaran Thompson, with a neat free, landed Donegal’s first point in 25 minutes and it was a three-point game, with Niall Scully on the mark seconds earlier at the other end.
However, the pendulum swung Donegal’s way with those two goals in the last two minutes of the half.
