Wicklow discover the gulf remains too wide to bridge

MIRACLES, even those of the minor variety, are a rare enough occurrence at Croke Park at the best of times. But with Lady Luck frowning on their best efforts and the added ingredient of Donegal cuteness to cope with, Wicklow never really had a chance of upsetting the odds in yesterday's Church and General National Football League quarter-final encounter at GAA headquarters.

The gulf that exists between genuine silverware contenders a la Donegal and a side emerging from the footballing shadows like Wicklow, who were the sole Division Four team to qualify for the knockout stages, was emphasised in no uncertain fashion to the 11,004 souls who clicked their way through the turnstiles.

As Donegal manager PJ McGowan acknowledged in the new, state-of-the-art dressing rooms after his side's comfortable win: "We were on a hiding to nothing. If we won by 15 points, people would say `you were only playing a poor Wicklow side. And if we won by just two or three points, they'd say `it was a bad performance'. So, as far as I am concerned, it's just a case of mission accomplished, although in a satisfactory manner.

Donegal, it must be said, never looked like losing. However, their passage to the semi-finals was effectively secured early in the second half - a period Wicklow manager Dave Foran described as "five minutes of madness" from his players - when a highly fortuitous Declan Bonner goal from a badly-struck free put seven points between the sides, a cushion the Division One winners were never likely to throw away.

In many ways, this was yet another rung on the education ladder for Wicklow. No-one can doubt they possess heart and character, but their play was a touch naive at times and their finishing left a lot to be desired. For example, with four minutes remaining Wicklow had shot 10 wides to a miserly one from their opponents. The fact Donegal increased that tally to four by the time referee Paddy Russell signalled the end of proceedings was immaterial; their foot was well off the throttle by then.

And, yet, Wicklow did so many good things. Fergus Daly was the best midfielder on view; goalkeeper Ken Quirke, aside from his one monumental blunder in the second half which effectively finished the match as a contest when he dropped Bonner's free over the line, pulled off a string of outstanding saves, while defenders Damien McMahon and Philip McGillicuddy thwarted a number of Donegal attacks.

"We came here to do ourselves justice, and I believe we did that in stages," admitted Foran. "Their second goal was a bit of a fluke. but the bottom line is that we have to up our scoring rate if we are to inflict damage on teams."

Donegal certainly don't have any worries about scoring, especially with a certain full-forward, called Tony Boyle simply doing no wrong these days. Boyle's free-taking - whether from the hand or the ground - was exemplary but, importantly, he also demonstrated that point-taking from play is still an important part of his armoury.

It was indicative of the route. the match was to take when Manus Boyle opened the scoring with a fourth minute point from an acute angle, by which stage the Wicklowmen had already registered two wides. But Keith Byrne gave a hint of a possible upset in the 14th minute when he ran on to Barry O'Donovan's pass and neatly tucked the ball under Greg Walsh's body to give Wicklow the lead for the only time in the match (1-1 to 0-2), even if it was short-lived.

Within two minutes, Tony Boyle and Martin Shovlin had brought Donegal level. Scare over, Donegal tightened their grip on affairs and Brian Roper acted as the main predator when he fired home a well-worked goal in the 28th minute to confirm Donegal's growing ascendancy. James Ruane, Manus Boyle and Paddy Hegarty were all involved in the move which culminated in Roper slotting past Quirke.

And, although veteran attacker Kevin O'Brien (a large amount of Wicklow's play still flows through him) kept Wicklow's hopes lingering on up to halftime at least, the writing was on the wall for the outsiders shortly after the presumption.

Unfortunately, goalkeeper Quirke - who had performed some heroics in the first half, particularly with two saves from Brian Roper - became the villain of the piece in the 40th minute and, one suspects, he hoped that the ground could have opened up to swallow him.

Bonner's left-footed free was a poor one, by his standards, and failed to rise higher than the cross bar. But Quirke, under no pressure, dropped the ball over his line and, although he sought to retrieve matters, the umpires had no doubts in raising the green flag. That somewhat lucky goal put Donegal 2-9 to 1-4 ahead, effectively scuppering any prospect of a Wicklow revival.

It is to Wicklow's credit that they outscored Donegal by four points to three over the remaining 20 minutes, but the die had already been cast and henceforth it was more a damage limitation exercise than any real threatening of Donegal's lead.