Donegal charge through Louth to reach All-Ireland quarter-final
All-Ireland SFC preliminary quarter-final: Donegal 2-22 Louth 0-12
On a day when Louth's satnav malfunctioned,
Donegal
set their compass for Croke Park.
Conor O'Donnell and Ciaran Thompson goaled as Jim McGuinness's side safely booked a place in the
All-Ireland
quarter-finals.
Donegal outscored
Louth
1-16 to 0-5 in a lopsided second half to ease into the last eight.
Louth, who stayed overnight in the Killyhevlin Hotel in Enniskillen, took a wrong turn on the way to Ballybofey and managed to end up in Sligo.
READ MORE
'The honest to God truth was human error in our navigation,' Louth manager Ger Brennan said. 'But the Atlantic Way looks good. We'll chance that the next day.'
Donegal will be on their travels again and O'Donnell's goal was the key score of the first half, helping the Ulster champions to lead 1-6 to 0-7 at the changeover.
O'Donnell fired home after being put clear by Michael Langan in the 34th minute. Until then, Ryan Burns' four points helped keep Louth firmly on the coattails.
Louth's Craig Lennon in action against Donegal's Ciarán Moore and Finnbarr Roarty. Photograph: Lorcan Doherty/Inpho
Sam Mulroy's free started the ball rolling in the second half, bringing Louth to within a point, but their afternoon – and their season – soon capsized.
Donegal hit five points in as many minutes, including a roof-raising two-pointer by Michael Murphy, before Thompson drilled home a second goal for the hosts.
Thompson, making his 50th championship appearance in Donegal's colours, beat Niall McDonnell from distance.
'That's the first goal he's ever scored in championship football,' McGuinness enthused about his fellow Naomh Conaill man.
By the end, Donegal had 12 different players on the scoresheet, including a two-pointer by Michael Langan, playing his 99th game for the county.
Teenage corner back Finnbarr Roarty popped up with two points, including a fisted effort to kick-start Donegal's second-half surge.
'He's like a breath of fresh air for everybody watching him,' McGuinness said. 'For me the most important adjustment that he's made is on the ball. He's always been a brilliant tenacious defender the whole way up through the ranks, but now he's playing at senior intercounty level and he's difficult to take the ball off as well.'
Conor O'Donnell scores goal for Donegal. Photograph: Lorcan Doherty/Inpho
In 2020 and 2021, Mulroy worked closely with McGuinness, who had a spell working with the Naomh Máirtín club in Louth, winning back-to-back championships in those years.
While Mulroy pulled the deficit back to five, Thompson's goal put Donegal out of reach and out of sight.
McGuinness added: 'We were clinical and did a good job to get over the line with 20 minutes to spare, basically, and give us a chance to get some players on the pitch as well that have been doing well in training.
'You want to be ruthless and you want to be clinical all the time and we were that in the second half.'
Brennan believes Donegal 'showed their seriousness and ability as potential All-Ireland contenders'.
The former Dublin star – who will now take time to assess his own future as Louth manager after a year in which they won a first Leinster title since 1957 – said: 'Donegal just steamed through on a cruiseliner and punished us for every error. They're a superb team.'
DONEGAL:
S Patton, F Roarty (0-0-2), B McCole, P Mogan (0-0-1); R McHugh, E Gallagher, C Moore; J McGee, M Langan (0-1-1); C McColgan (0-0-1), C Thompson (1-0-0), S O'Donnell (0-0-1); C O'Donnell (1-0-2), M Murphy (0-1-1, 1f), O Gallen (0-0-5).
Subs:
H McFadden (0-0-1) for McGee (h-t), D Ó Baoill (0-0-2) for McHugh (49 mins), P McBrearty for Murphy (54), O McFadden-Ferry for Gallagher (57), N O'Donnell (0-0-1) for C.O'Donnell (57).
LOUTH:
N McDonnell; D Nally, D Campbell, D McKenny; E Carolan, P Lynch (0-0-1), C Lennon (0-0-1); T Durnin, D McDonnell (0-0-1); C McKeever, C Downey (0-0-1), P Matthews (0-0-1); D Corcoran, S Mulroy (0-0-3, 1f), R Burns (0-0-4).
Subs:
C Grimes for Carolan (h-t), S Callaghan for Durnin (49 mins), R Walsh for Matthews (54), K McArdle for Lennon (56), C Byrne for Burns (60).
Referee:
B Cassidy (Derry).
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
28 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
‘Limerick didn't take Dublin for granted', insists Kiely
Always chasing. That's how it felt on the sideline on Saturday afternoon for Limerick manager John Kiely. The pre-match All-Ireland favourites did lead for much of the first 25 minutes, and for a brief period between the 51st and 53rd minutes when they were 0-19 to 0-18 up, but they were, surprisingly, the hunters for the most part when they'd spent the guts of a decade being the hunted. "It was very like the Munster final, we struggled to get in front and apply the pressure on the opposition," said Kiely. "That was the key piece, we were always the team that was under pressure, chasing the game." And yet it wasn't as if Limerick flopped or underperformed. They were flatter than normal for sure, particularly after Chris Crummey's 15th-minute dismissal, but Adam English, Gearóid Hegarty, Cian Lynch and Aidan O'Connor at times, all brought excellence. "Whatever happened after the sending off, there was most certainly a response from Dublin that we didn't have or give, and once Dublin got their teeth into the contest, they really gave themselves a great chance," continued Kiely. "I just thought they did really well on breaking ball. The analysis and detail will be done and will show they did really well on second ball, breaking ball in particular. Primary puck-out as well, they do strongly there, and obviously their accuracy, when they got shooting chances they took them." That's not entirely true. Dublin lamped nine first-half wides and Cian O'Sullivan dropped a couple more point attempts short. And yet they still led by 0-15 to 0-12 at half-time, which only underlines how Limerick weren't quite at it. Maybe they took Dublin for granted? Not consciously at least, according to Kiely. "Not at all, we had all our analysis done of Dublin and their performance levels in the Leinster championship were of a very high level, puck-outs, accuracy had been very good, in one game they had a 85 percent shooting accuracy," he said. "They brought that forward and pulled it all together. They mightn't have done it altogether in a single game in Leinster but they were extremely competitive. They lost two of the main games but only by a couple of points. They got their performance levels right and great credit to them." There was no great speculation around Kiely's position on Saturday evening. He has another year to run on his deal with the Limerick county board. He and Paul Kinnerk will spend autumn reflecting on the most punishing loss of their time together with Limerick. Kiely said the goals ultimately won it for Dublin but the post-mortem will be far more comprehensive and will tear apart Limerick's entire buildup and season as a whole. Kiely is confident he won't look back and wince at how Limerick used the spare man after Crummey's exit. "We used the extra man in a typical way that any team would, we had three-versus-two in the inside line, 99 percent of teams would do something similar," he said. "We have no qualms about that, that's not a concern for me right now. Ultimately we were just not 100 percent sharp on the ball, we turned over balls we shouldn't have. "Everything just seemed to be a little bit harder for us when we were on the ball and ultimately when you are a little bit off, it gives the opposition a chance and Dublin, to be fair, they were super."
Irish Times
39 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Live All-Ireland football draw: Remaining counties to learn their quarter-final fates
All-Ireland SFC quarter-final draw to take place shortly after 8.30am Key Reads Malachy Clerkin: Football prelims had a whiff of predictability , but it's anyone's guess from here to the final The Schemozzle: Dublin's win over Limerick may be the greatest upset in championship history Denis Walsh: The GAA is in a strange spot in relation to people being paid legitimately 1 minute ago Good morning everyone. Welcome along to The Irish Times live blog for the All-Ireland SFC quarter-final draw. Preliminary quarter-final winners Kerry , Dublin , Galway and Donegal have joined round-robin group toppers Meath, Tyrone, Monaghan and Armagh in the last eight, and we'll find out shortly who'll be facing off in this weekend's quarter-finals. Each of the four group winners will be drawn against one of the preliminary quarter-final winners. The draw will avoid repeats of provincial final pairings and, where possible, repeat pairings from the groups. With that in mind, we know Armagh can't be drawn against Donegal as the counties met in the Ulster final, nor can they meet fellow Group of Death survivors Dublin and Galway. That only leaves Kerry, so the Munster champions will face the reigning All-Ireland champions. Of the rest, Meath can't play Kerry, Tyrone can't play Donegal, and Monaghan can't play Down.
Irish Examiner
43 minutes ago
- Irish Examiner
Angry Kildare won't settle for last eight berth
Kildare manager Pat Sullivan said reaching the quarter-finals of the TG4 All-Ireland Championship is the stuff of dreams — but they are not going to settle for that after seeing off Armagh to reach the last eight. 'It's hard to put into words. Nobody outside of our circle gave us any chance. We drew with teams and beat teams in the league but we were still given no chance. We had a lot of anger and this is a really good squad. Our first year in Division One, there's no player in this circle has ever been in an All-Ireland quarter-final. 'So for them to achieve what they've achieved is a dream and we're not there to make up the numbers, we're there to give it everything and we're delighted to be there,' said Sullivan after their superb 1-12 to 1-10 away to Armagh. The sides were deadlocked at 0-6 apiece at the end of the opening half. Kildare captain Laoise Lenehan edged them in front after the restart and then after an exchange of points struck a major blow when she finished to the net after being set up by Roisin Byrne. Armagh responded well after Kildare extended the lead to five and captain Lauren McConville fired home a goal after being set up by Niamh Henderson, before Aimee Mackin cut the gap to the minimum but Mia Ryan's second point wrapped up the win for the Lilywhites. Tipperary never trailed as they beat Donegal by 0-11 to 1-6 in Bansha to set up a quarter-final against Meath after their best performance of the year. A superb display from Anna Rose Kennedy helped Tipperary to 0-8 to 0-3 lead at the interval before extending it with a couple of points from Aisling Moloney after the restart. 'In the first half we really controlled the game,' said Tipperary manager Ed Burke. 'We kicked some lovely scores from distance, we were patient, and we restricted their scoring. It was a real serious Tipperary team performance. Goals in each half from Katie Quirke sent Cork into the quarter-finals as they held off a late Mayo fightback in Castlebar to advance by 3-8 to 1-10. 'The goals were crucial scores,' said Cork manager Joe Carroll. 'We started fairly well but I thought we rushed the play a small bit. We got our kicks blocked down a few times and took a few shots we needn't have, that's something we need to work. We were better at it in the second half. 'We'll just have to get ourselves ready for Dublin, an exceptional team. They won the Leinster championship, so we'll have some work to do to beat them.' Cork led by 2-3 to 0-6 at the break with Máire O'Callaghan shooting to the net in the opening seconds of the contest. Mayo fought back in the second half and points from Sinead Walsh and a goal from Annie Gough reduced the gap but Cork held on to set up a quarter-final against Dublin. 'The last few weeks at this level, we haven't been aggressive in the second half,' said Mayo manager Liam McHale. 'We went down to Kerry and played well in the first half but only scored a point in the second half against the wind. We had a couple of goal chances but we couldn't seem to catch a break.' Waterford had six different goalscorers as they ousted Leitrim by 6-16 to 3-4 in Carrick-on-Shannon to book a quarter-final date with Galway. 'The first 15 minutes their backs were on top of us the whole time and we were finding it hard to get our shots off,' said Waterford full-forward Clare Walsh. 'Any shots the first few minutes their keeper saved them. Once we got into the flow, the points and the scores came. There were loads of scorers and some of our backs were up there too.' Lauren McGregor and Karen McGrath found the net in the opening half to lead by 2-7 to 1-1 at the break, with Laura O'Dowd getting the Leitrim goal. Waterford pushed on for victory with further goals from Brid McMaugh, Katie Murray, Clare Walsh and Megan Dunford sealing the win, with Leitrim pushing them all the way with goals from Rachel McIntyre and Aisling Quinn.
