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Donegal hang on

Donegal 1-10 Kerry 1-9: Donegal collected their first points of the season yesterday with a hard-earned victory over Kerry in…

Mon Mar 14 2005 - 00:00

Donegal 1-10 Kerry 1-9: Donegal collected their first points of the season yesterday with a hard-earned victory over Kerry in Ballybofey.

Kerry led 0-3 to 0-2 on 21 minutes, but a goal from Colm McFadden two minutes later put Donegal back in front and they were never headed afterwards.

Kerry did level in the 47th minute when Eoin Brosnan got in for a goal, but the home side showed the greater hunger and held on in the closing stages.

If Donegal had lost they would have had only themselves to blame. Four first-half wides were followed by 10 more in the second half as they found it difficult to put Kerry away. With the margin at two points for much of the closing stages, the nerves were fraying when Colm Cooper won and pointed a free in the final minute or normal time.

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By then, Kerry were playing with 14 men, as substitute William Kirby was yellow carded after all six substitutions were used by Jack O'Connor.

The All-Ireland champions brought in Dara Ó Cinnéide late in the first half and he was followed at half-time by Séamus Moynihan and Kirby, while Liam Hassett also joined the fray in an effort to retrieve the situation.

That McFadden goal gave Donegal a platform; points from Michael Hegarty and Rory Kavanagh helped them to a half-time lead of 1-5 to 0-6.

The Donegal goalkeeper Paul Durcan made a great save from Ó Cinnéide after 51 minutes, the turning point of the game.

Their big midfielder Neil Gallagher had a stormer, winning ball in the middle and cutting out another Kerry goal chance late in the game. Others to excel were Kavanagh, Hegarty, Raymond Sweeney, Eamon McGee and Niall McCready.

DONEGAL: P Durcan; N McCready, R Sweeney, E McGee; S Carr, B Monaghan, K Cassidy; S McDermott, N Gallagher; C Toye (0-1), M Hegarty (0-3), B Roper; C McFadden (1-1, 1f), R Bradley (0-3, 3f), R Kavanagh (0-2). Subs: D Diver for Roper (57), B Dunnion for McDermott (70).

KERRY: D Murphy; M Ó Sé, M McCarthy, M Lyons; T Ó Sé, E Fitzmaurice, A O'Mahony; D Ó Sé, M Quirke; P Galvin, E Brosnan (1-0), P Kelly (0-1); D Quill (0-1, f), R O'Connor (0-1, f), C Cooper (0-3, 1f). Subs: D Ó Cinnéide (0-3, 1f) for O'Connor (26), W Kirby for Quirke, S Moynihan for Lyons (both h.t.), L Hassett for Kelly (50), K Donaghy for Quill, B Guiney for M Ó Sé (both 57).

Referee: S McCormack (Meath).