Donegal's time to 'step up'

Life changes when you go supernova out of the blue. As the Donegal players warmed down to cheers from the gallery, Colm McFadden stood surrounded by cameras and microphones. Sport can be a lottery sometimes. Some of the great players in modern football were on show in Clones yesterday but as the masses rumbled down the hill afterwards, a new name was on all lips. McFadden squinted as he watched his colleagues going through their drills, seeming half amused by all the attention. He answered the barrage of questions like he had been practising for this moment.

Again and again, he was asked to talk the people through his goal.

"Yeah, well I just saw Christy Toye going inside on a wee run and my first instinct was to peel off. Christy kept going on. Like, he's a dangerous man. My man went towards him and he flicked it to me. I think Brian Dooher came in then and I just saw him out of the corner of my eye and stepped outside him. Then I thought, Jesus, there's a goal on here. I saw the gap then and just hit it."

St Michael's men seem to specialise in high-octane goals: last August, it was Toye who finished a similarly flowing Donegal move in the All-Ireland semi-final.

"Aye, well I played all along with Christy growing up and I suppose we know each other's game fairly well at this stage."

Manager Brian McEniff stood near the edge of the field, watching the team that just can't leave going through the motions of warming down. If he was surprised by what will be regarded as another feather of great plumage to add to his famous peaked cap, he hid it well. Asked about the dismissal of Niall McCready, he winced a little.

"Well . . . well, I wouldn't like to comment. I would be a little bit annoyed because there was an incident beforehand. But that is part and parcel of the game and Niall lost his composure and lost his place and it could have cost us the match. Because every one of the players was told to keep their mouths shut and their heads down."

Back in his street clothes, Toye reflected on another opportunity to play Armagh, the immovable heavyweights of the Ulster scene, in Croke Park.

"This is it now. In other years, when we beat big teams we used to go off and celebrate and stuff. But we have to put it in perspective; it is just another game. Before, we always seemed to threaten these big days without delivering. We kind of left it behind us last year in Croke Park and maybe in the Ulster final too. So this year is the time to step up."

Brian Roper, the bundle of energy that entered and walked away from many bone-crunching tackles that left one man down, considered this victory in terms of his life span as a Donegal footballer.

"It would be up there. But we feel we have to finish the job now. Like, we would have thought often about last year against Armagh.

"I suppose most people expected this year's final to be themselves and Tyrone. But sure we are always happy to throw a spanner in the works."

Tyrone manager Mickey Harte stayed on the field and in the tunnel for a long time afterwards, calm and polite. He sought out McEniff to congratulate him and then stood in consultation with his closest allies. He carried himself with the clearness of a man who knows the worst has already happened. It is simple for Tyrone now: they will either rally or they won't.

"Well, that is a fact of life: we have had tragedy and injuries and we have carried ourselves through them to this point. But today was a bridge too far. We all make mistakes in life and we made our share of them today and hopefully we can learn from them."