Donegal far too strong for Armagh at Athletic Grounds

Armagh 0-8 Donegal 2-11

“Division three mistakes” was the lamentation from Kieran McGeeney as the shutters were pulled on the ice-cream vans and Armagh went out of Ulster on a hot day up north. That gulf in experience may have contributed to this heavy defeat for the Orchard County, but the truth was that Donegal’s opening stanza would have troubled any team in Ireland.

The Ulster champions hardly put a foot wrong in clocking up 1-9 during the first 35 minutes when they left Armagh in their dust. The game was all but over before the town clock had reached 2.20pm.

There were echoes here of the day five summers ago when Armagh merrily ran Donegal ragged in Crossmaglen and left them seemingly directionless – a day which marked the beginning of a radical new road for this football team.

For senior players like Christy Toye, there may have been memories too of the merciless Ulster defeats which Kieran McGeeney’s teams handed out to a succession of Donegal teams. The shoe was on the other foot here – the obvious difference being that this Donegal side aren’t interested inflicting big scores for the sake of it. Armagh outscored their visitors in the second half, with the Donegal team content to control and contain in the hot sunshine.

Compelling figure

As ever when he plays, Michael Murphy was the compelling figure on the football field. Rory Gallagher offered further opportunity for the traditionalists to rant by asking the best full forward in the country to operate in a sort of advanced centre half back position.

Murphy rarely wandered the Armagh square; the odd time that he did, we were half expecting to hear the score from Jaws. Instead, he operated as playmaker, delivering a series of long and brilliantly angled balls towards the lone figure of Patrick McBrearty. The first direct ball almost worked while the second resulted in a McBrearty goal on three minutes. He was in again four minutes later but stumbled. Then he won a free.

Armagh tried to contain him with both Kieran McKeever and James Morgan, but he shimmered with menace. In the 27th minute, he thundered outfield, turned as he caught possession and thumped a high, brilliant left-footed point.

That left Donegal up by 1-7 to 0-1 and Armagh had no answer. Big Neil Gallagher rotated into the full-forward position every so often and at one stage in the second half the Donegal full forward line consisted of both starting midfielders, with McBrearty and Murphy playing outfield.

The McHugh brothers and Frank McGlynn directed traffic through the heavy orange wall around centre field and Paddy McGrath resumed what has become a long-running story with Armagh’s Jamie Clarke, holding the Crossmaglen flier scoreless on the afternoon.

The withdrawal of Colm McFadden with a virus and the loss of Eamon McGee at half-time had no discernible effect on the balance or understanding within the team. Donegal just kept on keeping on.

If Murphy was dominant in open play, the five placed-ball scores he converted were breathtaking. The Athletics Grounds is a lovely, compact stadium and so everyone in the crowd of 18,186 had a perfect view of the huge kicks which Murphy pointed. His last before half-time must have been from 63 metres and you hear the disbelief as the ball travelled – “Jaysus, it’s there, it’s there” – over Matthew McNeice’s crossbar with some distance to spare.

Irrelevant memory

It was 1-09 to 0-2 at half-time and last year’s narrow, claustrophobic All-Ireland quarter-finals suddenly seemed like a vague and irrelevant memory. Rushed handling and elemental mistakes didn’t help them during that first period and they attacked Donegal with more conviction during the second period. A glorious solo run by Clarke, skipping by the diving Karl Lacey before rolling his shot, glanced off the post and Stefan Campbell blasted the follow-up wide. On another day, that might have revived the side.

Instead, Donegal ripped through on a counter-attack two minutes later, with Murphy and McGlynn driving through the centre before Marty O’Reilly landed his first championship goal. Paul Durcan made a brilliant save on Ciaron O’Hanlon in the 60th minute so Armagh might have had two goals.

Still, you can’t imagine how quiet the Athletics Grounds had become by then. The result was decided and everyone knew it. Armagh defended in great numbers despite the deficit so the Donegal boys spun passes around in their own half, ticking down the clock, taking a breather and content enough to have Armagh snipe with the odd score. It was a desperately disappointing outing for Armagh football; there was a sense that their entire season had been building towards this date and Donegal’s blistering opening statement never gave the home crowd a chance to become involved.

The canard of “stop Michael Murphy and you stop Donegal” becomes less true with each outing now. The striking thing about this performance was that the point of attack kept changing. Odhran MacNiallais spent most of his day competing with Ethan Rafferty and Aaron Findon for a high ball but still landed two classy points. Neither McHugh scored but both were excellent in weaving paths through the thick Armagh cover and Mark won a high and very brave ball in the 17th minute.

They have a two-week preparation period now for their Saturday evening semi-final against Derry, and Brian McIver must have left Armagh with a heavily-marked notebook. Donegal will continue to rub feathers the wrong way and will never be the national darlings. But they are never less than fascinating to watch.

ARMAGH: M McNeice; F Moriarty, C Vernon, A Mallon; J Morgan (0-1), C McKeever (0-1), C Rafferty (0-1); A Findon (0-1), E Rafferty (0-1, free); T Kernan (0-3, one free), M McKenna, A Forker; A Murnin, S Campbell J Clarke. Subs: M Murray for McKenna (28), K Dyas for Moriarty (30), C O'Hanlon for E Rafferty (49), B Donaghy for A Forker (56), E McVerry for Murnin (67), S Harold for Findon (BC, 69)

DONEGAL: P Durcan; P McGrath, N McGee, E McGee; M McHugh, K Lacey (0-1), F McGlynn; N Gallagher (0-1), O MacNiallais (0-2); C Toye, M McElhinney (0-1), R McHugh; P McBrearty (1-1), M Murphy (0-5, four frees), M O'Reilly 1-0. Subs: A Thompson for E McGee (ht), H McFadden for McBrearty (50), D Walsh for Toye (56), G McFadden for McElhinney (65)

Referee: David Coldrick (Meath)