| No halting Donegal  By
Graham Clifford
Quietly building under the radar Donegal recorded their sixth straight victory
in 2007 and delivered John O’Mahony his first major loss as the Ulster
men defeated Mayo in Mac Cumhaill Park.
Fresh from their opening league win over Cork, Brian McIver’s men
maintained their 100 per cent record in the top division thanks largely
to a rousing second-half performance in front of their home supporters.
Mayo started brightly hoping to use their victory over Kerry last week as
the springboard to a strong league assault but left Ballybofey empty-handed.
The victory sees Donegal climb up into second position in the table and
after an exciting and dramatic clash McIver said the belief among this current
crop of players will be the cornerstone to their success.
He said: “We had to dig deep especially in the closing minutes and
that is where the character of this present Donegal side showed.
“Two wins against quality sides such as Cork and Mayo is not a bad
start to the league campaign and hopefully we can build on this in the coming
weeks.”
Donegal started brightly with the in-form Brendan Devenney looking extremely
dangerous with every attack.
Devenney who finished the day with a personal tally of three points
inspired the hosts to a 0-6 to 0-3 lead at the end of the first quarter
but Mayo burst into life shortly afterwards determined not to let the
game and the points slip away from them.
Shrule clubman Conor Mortimer clicked into gear in the second quarter to
reduce Mayo’s arrears but even the best efforts from the bleach-haired
attacker couldn’t pull the Connacht champions back to parity.
They trailed by a point at half-time with the scoreboard — barely
visible in the driving Ballybofey rain reading 0-7 to 0-6 in Donegal’s
favour.
With O’Mahony’s troops battling their way back into contention
they were masterminds of their own downfall when a high ball into the visitor’s
square spilled to Ryan Bradley who made no mistake firing past David Clarke
from close range to give Donegal a 1-8 to 0-9 lead.
As the game entered its final quarter it seemed the points were in the bag
for Donegal but an own goal from Neil Gallagher who fumbled the ball over
his own line threw Mayo a life-line.
Donegal failed to panic however and in the dying minutes a cool-headed Kevin
McMenamin was on hand to slot over two excellently-taken points.
Substitute Colm McFadden added some gloss to the score with a point
himself to give his side a three point victory.
Mayo manager O’Mahony said afterwards that he was disappointed with
the defeat but conceded the better side won on the day.
“We played well at times in this game and I couldn’t fault the
players for effort,” he said.
“However we were up against a good Donegal side on the day and their
greater consistency over the hour proved the difference in the end.
“We now have to pick ourselves up and get back on the winning trail
for our next league game.”
|
