A goal on his Ulster SFC debut by Jamie Brennan has Donegal five points ahead of Antrim at half-time in this afternoon’s Ulster quarter-final at Sean MacCumhaill Park.
Half-time: Donegal 1-8 Antrim 0-6
Brennan’s 31st minute goal has given Donegal some scarcely-deserved breathing space after a sometimes lethargic first half.
Picture caption: Ciaran Thompson with a superb score during the game against Antrim. Picture by Evan Logan
But the goal means that Donegal – who line out without Patrick McBrearty – will be confident of pressing home their advantage in the second half.
Brennan drilled home just after Matthew Fitzpatrick had fired wide at the other end, with a second brilliant goal chance for the Saffrons and new-look Donegal appear to be on their way to a semi-final on June 18.
The winds of change swept through the Bluestacks in the winter with nine of the 2016 panel stepping away from inter-county duty.
Donegal lined out with five Championship debutants and with seven of their starting XV starting a Senior Championship contest for the first time.
Caolan Ward, Jason McGee, Micheál Carroll, Cian Mulligan and Brennan were given their first tastes of Championship fare and Eoghan Ban Gallagher and Ciaran Thompson got their rewards for fine League campaigns.
Gallagher and Thompson made fleeting appearances in the 2016 Championship and started here in a Donegal team that showed only Paddy McGrath, Neil McGee, Frank McGlynn and Michael Murphy from the 2012 All-Ireland final.
Mulligan hadn’t been named to start in the Donegal team released yesterday, but he came into the equation to take the place of McBrearty, in what had been a rumoured change late in the week.
There was a certain edginess and even a nervousness in Donegal’s play in the first half, with Antrim doing well to stay on their coat-tails.
Antrim might well have had a goal in the 20th minute but CJ McGourty, after collecting a glorious diagonal pass in from Paddy McBride, beat Mark Anthony McGinley, only to see his shot roll inches wide.
They had another big goal chance 11 minutes later when, from an almost identical move, Conor Hamill found Fitzpatrick but, after a wonderful swivel, he fired similarly off target to McGourty.
Fitzpatrick hit the headlines this week when he was given a proposed 48-week ban, only to see the suspension quashed on an appeal, at which he was represented by Barrister and GAA pundit Joe Brolly. Fitzpatrick’s afternoon has ended prematurely, though, as he left on a stretcher in added time at the end of the half.
Within a minute, Thompson forced a turnover and, after a give-and-go between Murphy and Carroll, Brennan tucked past Chris Kerr for the afternoon’s opening goal.
Antrim came here eight years ago and stunned the John Joe Doherty-managed Donegal when they scored a famous win, but Donegal have been one of the dominant forces in the Ulster SFC in recent years, reaching the last six finals (winning three). The League campaigns of both had been contrasting with Donegal mixing well in Division 1 and Antrim falling through the trapdoor into Division 4.
McGourty’s granny Harbinson hails from Ballybofey and he was central to proceedings with three frees as Antrim began well, but a brace of frees each by Thompson and Murphy, as well as a lovely effort from play by Thompson gave Donegal the edge.
Hugh McFadden boomed over from the stand side just after McGourty’s goal chance and when Fitzpatrick spurned their next big opening Brennan delivered an emphatic response.
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