In pure numeric terms,
yesterday’s contest delivered a league point but in years to come the bounty
may be priceless. Rory’s Rookies stood up to the All-Ireland champions and
showed that they belong at this level and that they can be relied upon when the
going gets tough.
The rain that had
pummelled the Mac Cumhaill Park sod in the lead up to throw-in ensured that the
contest would be scrappy and a dogfight; that the young guns survived in such
an environment is all the more pleasing.
The soundbites
emanating from the manager’s media briefings during the week intimidated that
Donegal would be transformed into an all out, kamikaze attacking unit - fat
chance of that against the mighty Dublin. The absence of Paddy McBrearty
through injury meant an extremely inexperienced forward line so the plan had to
be to sit deep and try to hit Dublin on the counter attack at lightning speed.
Eoin McHugh and Jamie
Brennan were assigned the tough task of winning the little ball that came their
way. Without McBrearty we had no-one to get their hands on dirty ball, hold
onto it and wait for the cavalry to arrive.
The visitors had a
similar plan themselves and the most anxious moments for the home support were
when the ball was lost in opposition territory. Dublin broke forward, stretched
the pitch as wide as they could and more often than not found a blue jersey in
space.
The rate at which
Donegal turned the ball over was somewhat alarming; time after time the ball
was lost following a sloppy hand pass either played too far ahead or just
behind the receiver.
Composure was lacking
once Donegal crossed the halfway line and there was certainly a few
scores left behind
through wastefulness.
Dublin’s goal, a
wonderful flowing move from deep finished by the excellent Niall Scully, came
about following a slack handpass played to a static Michael Murphy.
There is never a lack
of composure when Ryan McHugh is around though and his goal (yet another
against Dublin) smacked of it; a delightful finish pebble-stoned into the
corner of the net. Seconds earlier he had displayed his dogged determined
streak when keeping the ball in play, showing incredible skill with foot and
hand in the process.
The anxiousness with
the ball will of course be eradicated as the year goes on; hands will become
softer, the ground firmer and accuracy will increase.
The determination to
move the ball quickly is a specific and necessary tactic. This Donegal team has
all of a sudden become quite small so attacking into space before opponents
have a chance to get their defensive screen set is the best way to create
scoring chances.
Over the last decade
and a half we have had a plethora of big forwards – Colm McFadden, Adrian
Sweeney, Ryan Bradley, Christy Toye et al. Now the physical make-up is
different.
We have an abundance
of small, nippy, highly-skilled footballers – similar to the glory days under
Brian McEniff – and a dearth of big rugged lumps of men. When you are faced
with a wall of defenders, you need big, powerful men to drive through tackles.
Martin McElhinney’s
return will help matters in this regard but generally there aren’t too many
like him around in green and gold and we lost one of the greatest during the
week with the retirement of Neil Gallagher.
His clubmate Murphy’s
simple tribute spoke volumes, “some man for one man.” Gallagher was some man
for Donegal football and his like may never be seen again. There are however
some striking similarities between him and the most likely heir to his throne,
Ciaran Thompson.
Both have this
unerring ability to play the game at their own pace. They never seem to be in a
hurry yet you rarely see them getting caught by a challenge or dispossessed.
Thompson has been flagged as a top class inter county player for a couple of
years, particularly since his tour de force against Cavan in the U21
Championship, but even still the speed with how he has taken to a leading role
this year is remarkable.
He rarely wastes
possession, kicked a couple of frees yesterday in McBrearty’s absence, is
wonderful in the air and got the better of his duel with Brian Fenton.
Jason McGee also put
in a huge shift around the middle third, capping a memorable display with a
return of 1-1. His opening skyscraper of a point set the tone for the day and
sent a message that despite facing the best team in the land, Donegal’s future,
and indeed it’s present, is in good hands.
Jason is a fine soccer
player and when the ball eventually landed back to him following some
pinball around Stephen
Cluxton’s goalmouth, between himself, Martin O’Reilly and Jamie Brennan, he
slotted the ball home.
The two goal blitz
from McGee and McHugh turned the game on its head, providing the hosts with a
scarcely deserved lead.
A three point surplus
at the short whistle brought a familiar challenge. The last time Donegal had
such a lead in a big game was last year’s Ulster Final.
As on that day, the
first score plundered after the restart pushed the lead out to four.
As on that day, the
lead did not bring victory.
Have the team and
management learnt their lessons? Is the team capable of defending a lead and
turning it into a win?
In fairness, the team
kept looking for scores yesterday and it was more their handling and decision
making that let them down. So the signs were encouraging. Against Tyrone on
that sweltering day in Clones, the team didn’t seem to know whether to attack
or defend, to stick or twist and in the end they blinked first.
Caolán Ward was one of
those who kept surging forward, kept bringing the game to Dublin. He has been
impressive in all the games thus far and his clubmate, Eamonn Doherty, did
likewise during his cameo late on. Both men are strong on the ball and against
the wind in the second half, this was no easy task.
Most of the crowd
would have taken a draw as 2pm approached and they were certainly glad of it as
the clock ticked past 3.30pm.
Murphy’s brilliant
free, which looked routine from the stand but was far from it considering the
breeze he faced, secured a draw and kept a seven-year unbeaten run in
Ballybofey intact.
Whatever about
registering a third league point of 2017, the most important aspect of the day
was that the team refused to wilt. Behind with a few minutes to go, it would
have been easy to accept a narrow defeat and think ‘well we did grand, didn’t
disgrace ourselves’; the players though collectively, young and not so young,
refused to be beaten.
Next week will be a
different type of test. In many ways it's easy to get revved up for a match in
front of a big home crowd against the All-Ireland Champions. Now the players
need to show that they can apply the same focus and attention to a Saturday
night in Cavan - a bigger game in relation to Division One survival.
Two points next week
and Donegal will be looking up rather than down.
No comments:
Post a Comment