Donegal hardly broke a sweat as they dispatched of Clare on an impressive score of 2-23 to 0-4 at Castlebar today.
By Charlie Collins in Castlebar
With Tyrone also taking care of Cork, the results combine to leave Donegal straight into a quarter-final draw.
Not even Jim McGuinness and his positive thoughts could have hoped for a better result.
With several permutations possible depending on, not only the result here in Castlebar, but also on the result of Cork v Tyrone in Tullamore, the only thing Donegal could do was to concentrate on winning this one and see what that brought with it.
Clare had lost both their opening games in the Group but only by two points to Cork and although heavily by Tyrone, only after having a player sent-off, so taking anything for granted in terms of a result was not an option for Jim McGuinness’s team.
Jason McGee missed out through injury so Ciaran Moore was relocated to midfield with Mark Curran recalled at corner-back, Odhran Doherty replaced Daire O Baoill, and Carndonagh’s Conor O Donnell made a welcomed return to the match-day squad after a long absence as did Hugh McFadden.
Conor O’Donnell was back with a bang for the first time this year for Donegal.
Emmet McMahon got the scoreboard moving for Clare from a long range free but Donegal responded with a super goal from Ryan McHugh when Shane O Donnell and Oisín Gallen combined to set him up , the Kilcar man blasting the ball to the roof of the net.
Both teams were guilty of being turned over in the early stages as played flowed from end to end but as Donegal settled to their task they looked the better team and three points from play by Micheal Langan , Peadar Mogan , Patrick McBrearty and Mark Curran made it 1-04 to 0-01 and Donegal in control.
In a rare Clare attack Shaun Patton denied Aaron Griffen with an excellent save and Donegal created another fine move with ended with Oisín Gallen’s first score, 1-05 to 0-01 after twenty five minutes.
He added his second a minute later from a 45 as Clare struggled to get to the pace of the game especially in attack, still looking for their first point from play.
The scores kept coming for Donegal, Ciaran Thompson , Ryan McHugh and two crackers from Paddy McBrearty made it 1-10 to 0-01 and Donegal almost out of sight.
Ryan McHugh added a point to make his personal tally 1-02 and at half-time Donegal led by 1-11 to 0-01 , Clare failing to score from the second minute or from play and with a mountain to climb.
Scoring machine Oisin Gallen grabbed another 1-4 for Donegal today.
Conor O Donnell and Daire O Baoill were introduced at half-time and the latter immediately pointed from play, quickly followed by a Ciaran Moore score and then a Oisín Gallen goal after another fine build-up opened up Clare once again , 2-13 to 0-01. Sub Dairmaid O Donnell converted a Clare free but Gallen , Conor O Donnell , McHugh and McBrearty all added points , 2-17 to 0-02.
Emmet McMahon finally got Clare’s first point from play but Thompson, Gallen, McBrearty, Shane O Donnell, Conor O Donnell and Ryan McHugh all replied leaving it 2-23 to 0-03.
Emmet McMahon added another free but Donegal had done their job and the good news from Tullamore was that Tyrone had beaten Cork and Donegal had secured a Quarter-Final place in the All Ireland Senior championship in two weeks time.
The draw for the Preliminary Quarter-Finals will take place live on Monday morning after the 8-30am News on RTE’s Morning Ireland.
Donegal ; Shaun Patton ,Mark Curran (0-01), Brendan McCole ,Eoghan Ban Gallagher , Ryan McHugh (1-04), Caolan McGonagle. , Peadar Mogan (0-01), Ciaran Moore (0-01), Michael Langan (0-01) , Shane O Donnell (0-01) , Ciaran Thompson ( 0-02) , Odhran Doherty , Patrick McBrearty (0-05), Oisin Gallen ( 1-04), Niall O Donnell.
Subs: Conor O Donnell (0-02) and Daire O Baoill (0-01 ) for Curran and Doherty (h/t), Stephen McMenamin for Gallagher (40mins), Hugh McFadden for Langan ( 50mins), Kevin McGettigan for Mogan( 55mins),
Clare; Tristan O Callaghan , Manus Doherty, Cillian Brennan, Ronan Lanigan , Alan Sweeney, Cillian Rouine , Ikem Ugweru , Brian McNamara, Michael Garry , Declan Walsh, Dermott Coughlan, Gavin Murray , Ciaran Downes, Aaron Griffin, Emmet McMahon (0-03). .
Subs:Diarmaid O Donnell 0-01 and Darren Nagle for Downes and Murray , James Curran for Walsh , Shane Griffen for Aaron Griffen , Cian Burke for Ugweru.
Referee ; Derek O Mahoney ( Tipperary).
