IT was only when Ryan McHugh clutched the ball that Donegal could finally breathe.
A matter of seconds before, he had watched Kilcar club-mate Patrick McBrearty soak up the acclaim of the frenzied Tir Chonaill support after moving Jim McGuinness’s men into a two point lead.
It was a moment of blessed relief on this most claustrophic of Ulster Championship afternoons, momentum shimmying and shaping like the whims of the weather Gods that soaked Celtic Park before giving way to sun.
Yet even then, even with just over 90 minutes on the clock, Donegal couldn’t settle. Not completely. An overwhelming heaviness permeated every corner of the ground because the two sides had made it that way from minute one.
For so much of this semi-final Tyrone were the better side, controlling the tempo and setting the pace. Yet every time one or other got a gallop up and created some daylight, they were immediately hauled back into the fire - no you don’t. Not today.
So when McHugh received the ball off McBrearty near the Donegal 40, one eye on referee Brendan Cawley before the sweetest sound of all, everything came out as he hopped into the air and let out an almighty roar.
For the likes of him and McBrearty - veterans of the Jim 1.0 era - this is familiar terrain. What occurred against Derry eight days earlier would have mattered for very little had Donegal not gone on to seal a May 12 Ulster final date with Armagh.
The odd Oak Leaf flag still fluttered in the wind on the road into Derry, but the shockwaves sent out from that stunning victory could never sustain the Tir Chonaill challenge.
Tyrone love nothing more than being cast as no-hopers, and it was clear from the earliest moments that they intended puncturing the wheels of the Donegal bandwagon.
With Shaun Patton ruled out due to a quad injury, a huge part of their arsenal was removed from the off. But, even if he had been fit, the Letterkenny man wouldn’t have been permitted to boom long balls over the top of Tyrone.
The Red Hands learned that lesson in the eerie emptiness of a rain-lashed MacCumhaill Park during the 2020 Covid Championship, Michael Langan profiting from the route one approach that time, while Odhran Lynch’s living nightmare almost certainly prohibits any other from following suit.
And so, Tyrone set out to mirror Donegal. Michael O’Neill was brought in to aid the rearguard action, while Conn Kilpatrick got the band back together with Brian Kennedy in the middle for the first time in eight weeks.
It wasn’t quite the keep-ball catastrophe of the first half in Clones the previous day but, as the heavens opened, it wasn’t the easiest on the eye either. When Seanie O’Donnell cut through and opted to try for a goal rather than tapping over, you wondered about Tyrone’s intentions.
Were they to home in on majors at any opportunity? It would be a dangerous game. Yet the whiff of desperation off O’Donnell’s early effort soon gave way to a more settled approach as the Red Hands found their groove,h the experienced pair of Niall Morgan and Mattie Donnelly once again at the heart of everything.
Cathal McShane had been brought in to beef up Tyrone’s physical presence, but made little impact. The deadly duo of Darragh Canavan and Darragh McCurry were well wrapped up, bar the occasional moment of Canavan ingenuity.
And so it was Donnelly who made the inroads that mattered, driving from deep and brushing off Donegal bodies just as he had done against Cavan seven days earlier. Despite coming back from yet another career-threatening injury in the nadir of a brilliant career, the Trillick man’s reputation soars with each outing.
The same can be said of Morgan, roaming out the field to find Ciaran Daly with a pinpoint pass out on the wing. Taking the mark was the easy option, but he played on and split the posts without a second thought to move Tyrone two ahead on 20 minutes.
Donegal knew what kind of day this was going to be. From four goals against the reigning Ulster champions the week before, they now find themselves mired in a dogfight – and they were up for every bit of it.
Yet, when Conal Devlin blocked down Oisin Gallen’s late effort to leave Tyrone three to the good heading in at the break, it felt as though it could be the Red Hands’ day. The second half, though, was the kind that leaves heads in a spin as minute-by-minute predictions went out the window, one after another.
With the sun now hovering overhead, Tyrone grasped back the momentum when a Morgan free, another Daly screamer and a Canavan score - punishing a poor kick-out from stand-in ‘keeper Gavin Mulreany – saw them surge into a three-point lead, only for Donegal to reel them in within a matter of minutes, the superb Niall O’Donnell at the epicentre of all they did well.
This long-established pattern prevailed until a cleverly worked kick-out from Morgan found O’Donnell, he gave it to Mattie Donnelly whose diagonal ball was easily won by Canavan – the Errigal Ciaran man making no mistake with the mark to leave Tyrone on the cusp of a huge victory.
But Morgan was soon called into action again, this time denying Aaron Doherty from point blank range, before Brendan McCole sent the game into extra-time.
It is at those moments, the final quarter of normal time, that Tyrone might wince when they come to review this game. It was there but they couldn’t take it, managing just two points in the final 23 minutes of normal time.
And while the spirit was always willing, in extra-time their bodies eventually began to give out. Perhaps it was a result of the previous week’s endeavours at Kingspan Breffni, but Donegal had the know-how to capitalise as McBrearty – brought off at half-time – returned to settle his side down.
Michael McKernan’s raiding run down the right before half-time in extra-time, finished with a fist, proved the last of what they had. Morgan got lucky when caught high up the field a few times as the game opened out, Donegal’s superior fitness paying dividends when McBrearty profited from a rare moment of time and space – turning to the terrace and clenching his fists in celebration.
Mickey Harte one week, Brian Dooher’s men the next, McGuinness’s stranglehold over Tyrone continues. By whatever means necessary, Jimmy’s still winning matches all these years on.
Donegal: G Mulreany; M Curran, B McCole (0-1), C Moore; C McGonagle (0-01); R McHugh, P Mogan (0-1); J McGee (0-2), M Langan; D O Baoill (0-2), S O’Donnell (0-1), C Thompson (0-02, 0-1 free); N O’Donnell (0-2) P McBrearty (0-2, 0-1 free), O Gallen (0-3, frees). Subs: A Doherty for McBrearty (HT), J Brennan for O Baoill (49), McBrearty for Doherty (71), O Baoill for Moore (71), J McKelvey (0-1) for Curran (73), C McColgan for Brennan (74), A Doherty for Gallen (80), J Brennan for N O’Donnell (88)
Yellow card: J McGee (59)
Tyrone: N Morgan (0-3, frees); C Devlin, P Hampsey, M McKernan (0-2); M Donnelly (0-1); M O’Neill, N Devlin; B Kennedy, C Kilpatrick; S O’Donnell (0-2), K McGeary, C Daly (0-2); C McShane (0-1), D McCurry (0-2, frees), D Canavan (0-4, 0-1 free, 0-1 mark). Subs: A Clarke for C Devlin (41), B Cullen for McGeary (63), R Canavan for O’Neill (76), A Donaghy for McShane (88), C Donnelly for Kilpatrick (88)
Referee: B Cawley (Kildare).
Att: 14,714
