Dublin fail to close out game

Dublin 2-08...Donegal 0-14: With little over five minutes left, it was nothing but blue skies for Dublin in yesterday's Bank of Ireland All-Ireland quarter-final at Croke Park. But the cloud that had overshadowed much of their afternoon passed overhead as the clock ran down and the defence's inability to keep tabs on Donegal's Adrian Sweeney cost the Leinster champions dearly. Seán Moran at Croke Park

The sides were level when Ray Cosgrove's second goal in the 65th minute put Dublin in front for the first time since the interval and opened up the biggest lead of the match. It was in keeping with a match that neither side seemed fully confident of winning that the lead proved brittle. Paul McGonigle and Sweeney with two points provided the wherewithal to haul Donegal back from the precipice and leave them staring in relief into the abyss that had nearly consumed them.

Melodrama aside, the result was just. Donegal had driven the match throughout, sniping persistently for their scores whereas Dublin had been kept afloat by the sharp instincts of Cosgrove. Five goals in three matches is striking testimony to his incisive goal scoring.

Donegal were more measured and more consistently threatening but were also unable to put the match away despite frequently hitting the front through the second half. Until Cosgrove's second goal, there had been no more than a point between the teams since the end of the first quarter when the Kilmacud player's first goal overturned a 0-3 to 0-1 deficit.

Credit is also due to Dublin, who survived the most disrupted of preparations with the news on the eve of the match that manager Tommy Lyons had been detained in hospital for tests. Selector Paul Caffrey took over on the line and although the performance was the county's weakest since Wexford in May, there were still characteristic flourishes and - the now usual - exquisitely-timed goals.

This match was always going to come down to which set of forwards could do most damage against less highly-rated defences. By the end Donegal had landed more punches but Dublin's fewer hits had been heavier.

Both defences executed some enforced reshuffling when each centre back had to leave the field injured within the first 10 minutes. Dublin had already started with an adjustment - the returned Jonny Magee being earmarked to accompany McGonigle on his rambles out to centrefield. In the consequent switching Paul Casey ended up at centre back only to be replaced after taking a knock in the 10th minute.

His Donegal counterpart Barry Monaghan was replaced by Damien Diver in the third minute.

Darren Magee's arrival allowed his brother revert to centre back where he was happier and he did a good job on McGonigle until the fateful closing minutes. Diver went to wing back and although Senan Connell ran him around a bit, the Ardara player ended up trading at a profit - two points to his marker's one.

The edginess in both teams was clear in the opening stages and it took 13 minutes for a score.

So far this season Shane Ryan has been more of a game breaker than a scorer and presumably would have been available at attractive odds to raise the first flag but it was he who got the scoreboard moving.

Already Dublin were living dangerously. Coman Goggins had another fraught afternoon in the wake of Tadhg Fennin's big score in the Leinster final, however unfair that had been on the Dublin captain. Sweeney was in sharp form and got onto a lot of ball and used the possession to take on Dublin. His value didn't become fully apparent until the ice-cool endgame but all afternoon he was a handful even if one of his points came after - on his own admission - he had fouled the ball.

In the now familiar two-handed attack Brendan Devenney wasn't allowed by Paddy Christie to pose the same threat as Sweeney, but he created space and opportunity for his on-song partner. Behind them Peadar Andrews initially had his work cut out on the lively Brian Roper but eventually managed to contain the damage.

Once more Stephen Cluxton had a fine match in goal for Dublin and was very unlucky in the 42nd minute when a fine save from Devenney spun loose to Sweeney who exacted his usual fee.

Dublin's equally in-form full forwards weren't as composed. Cosgrove took his goals well and in general was the best of them. Alan Brogan was well marked by Noel McGinley and didn't manage to get into the danger zone as much as in the previous two matches. At the end of the first half he nearly opened the defence but an attempt at a fisted point was palmed away by Donegal goalkeeper Tony Blake.

John McNally did some good things in play but the sorrowful mysteries of his relationship with the placed ball deepened. Tommy Lyons can only have been partly joking when he said after the Leinster final that the harder the team practised free kicks the worse the problem got. As he watched from the Blackrock Clinic, the manager's humour can't have improved.

At half-time Dublin led by a point, which was a good return from 35 minutes when they had been under pressure. This comparatively cheerful state of affairs came about principally because of Cosgrove's 17th minute strike. Latching onto Darren Magee's long ball, he turned the cover and a road to goal opened.

Television pictures appeared to disprove suggestions that he had hopped the ball twice rather than taken it under control. In any event he finished to the net for the critical score of the half.

As the second half settled into a metronomic pattern of Donegal leading and Dublin swiftly responding - Donegal led for only an accumulated five minutes in the second half - the big crowd waited for one of the teams to make a decisive break. Dublin's centrefield had struggled to impose itself on John Gildea and Jimmy McGuinness, but Ciarán Whelan made a big late impact, providing an instant equaliser to Devenney's last free in the 59th minute.

As the final countdown ticked away Dublin made their move. Replacement Jason Sherlock took advantage of a mistake by Raymond Sweeney to race at goal and lay off a perfect pass for Cosgrove who confidently stuck the ball into the net.

Dublin were poised but failed to take the vital extra point that would have sealed the match. But there was a busy final act to come. Point by point Donegal saved themselves and live to fight another day, on Saturday week.

HOW THEY LINED OUT

DUBLIN: 1 S Cluxton; 6 J Magee, 3 P Christie, 4 C Goggins (capt ); 7 P Andrews, 5 P Casey, 2 B Cahill; 8 C Whelan, 9 D Homan; 10 C Moran, 11 S Ryan, 12 S Connell; 13 A Brogan, 14 R Cosgrove, 15 J McNally.

Subs: 18 D Magee for Casey (10 mins); 19 D Farrell for Connell (48 mins); 20 J Sherlock for Moran (51 mins); 12 S Connell for Ryan (66 mins), 21 K Darcy for Homan (70 mins).

DONEGAL: 1 T Blake; 2 S Carr, 3 E Doherty, 4 N McGinley; 5 R Sweeney, 6 B Monaghan, 7 K Cassidy; 8 J Gildea, 9 J McGuinness; 10 C Toye, 11 M Hegarty (capt), 12 B Roper; 13 A Sweeney, 14 B Devenney, 15 P McGonigle.

Subs: 17 D Diver for Monaghan (3 mins); 24 B McLaughlin for Roper (55 mins); 19 K Rafferty for Toye (65 mins); 20 B Boyle for McGuinness (66 mins).