Donegal Kept On A Laois

Tir Conaill came away from Portlaoise yesterday with what they came for – promotion. Despite suffering their first league defeat of the year, their earlier stellar performances, most notably against Meath and Derry, ensured we’ll be back amongst the big guns of Division One next season. Opponents Laois will also be there; and they will also be in Croke Park on League Final day on Easter Sunday in what will be a rematch of yesterday’s clash.

This certainly wasn’t one of our better outings under Jim McGuinness, in particular the first half display was completely at odds with what we’ve been doing up until now. The full back line was all at sea, loose marking and plenty of space in front of our goal for Laois to attack. Karl Lacey had withdrawn before throw in resulting in Frank McGlynn moving from centre back to corner; Kevin Cassidy manned the middle with Marty Boyle coming in at wing back. Lacey is of course a huge loss to any team but whether or not these changes caused the problems at the back is up for debate; maybe it was just one of those days but the space afforded to the home side’s forwards was worrying.

Paddy McGrath looked a little off colour, allowing his man to get away from him on a few occasions. In fairness, McGrath has had an excellent campaign to date, as has Neil McGee but he struggled too on full forward Billy Sheehan who was a real handful; admittedly McGee was not helped by the big Kerry man giving him a few sly kicks whenever he got the chance. Laois have an especially pacey and mobile forward unit – Ross Munnelly, MJ Tierney and Colm Begley are experienced players at this level while some of the newcomers Justin McNulty has introduced acquitted themselves very well.

The teams are quite similar in many ways; both have young managers who employ a similar style of play, and both have put a specific emphasis on fitness. Generally when two teams with similar defensive templates come together, the result can be an attritional affair but yesterday’s match up showed that work rate and tracking back doesn’t necessarily lead to poor football. It was a pulsating encounter from start to finish with both teams soaking up pressure before breaking at speed. The result was an end to end encounter, with Tierney the difference thanks to his wonderful array of free taking skills. Regardless of distance or angle his technique is spot on and a huge asset to Laois as they enter the Leinster Championship in May.

As well as speed and athleticism, both sides brought physicality to the table but unfortunately there wasn’t much of it seen due to the over-fussiness of referee, Martin Higgins. A flurry of yellow cards was produced in the first half - nine in total over the 70 minutes - along with fifty-five frees over the course of the game and it wasn’t a surprise to see someone get sent to the line for a second yellow and the unfortunate one was Kilcar’s Michael Hegarty. He was dismissed with about twenty minutes remaining and it was always going to be an uphill struggle from there on in.

It was a shame because through the efforts of Dermot Molloy and the hard-working duo of Martin McElhinney and Ryan Bradley they had dragged themselves back into the game, cutting the deficit from eight points to two at one stage. The afore-mentioned Brick Molloy had got the all important goal, and he may even have had another only for a save by the Laois netminder; seconds later the ball was in the net at the other end, who else but Tierney with the neat finish.

A four-point defeat in the end for Donegal and McGuinness then kept his crew in the O’Moore Park dressing room for almost an hour after the game – and it obviously wasn’t to congratulate them on gaining promotion. The Messiah hasn’t come in this year with specific targets to be reached like promotion or Ulster titles; his aim was to get players playing for the jersey, to have respect for the management, respect for each other and respect for the supporters. They have done that without question so far. Their standards dropped a little yesterday so it was as good a time as any to remind them of what he expects. Lo-and-behold they have a chance to rectify any shortcomings almost immediately; Laois again provide the opposition in Croke Park in two weeks time and rest assured the performance will be upped considerably – Jim isn’t the kind of manager to let lightning strike twice.