DREAMS of a first all-Ulster All-Ireland final in 21 years proved short-lived when a storming finish from Galway saw them wear down Donegal at the death.
Level 10 times as biceps bulged throughout an absorbing arm wrestle, this game had extra-time written all over it when – with nine minutes left - Michael Langan leant back and effortlessly dropped over the latest of four sensational scores from range.
At that stage, it was anybody’s and nobody’s.
Dublin gone, Kerry gone, Armagh waiting for the winner – in a Championship blown wide open during recent weeks, there was a huge opportunity to grasp.
And, when it mattered, really mattered, Galway were the ones who held their nerve; the ones who kept their composure while Donegal lost theirs to set up a July 28 showdown with the Orchard.
The journey back home to the hills will have been a long one because, in some respects, Donegal lost it as much as Galway won it. Four shots had been dropped short in the opening exchanges of the second half as the Tribesmen retreated into their defensive shell.
Oisin Gallen, having roasted Liam Silke in the first half, pulled a free wide of the upright that would have nudged the Tir Chonaill ahead going into the final five minutes. On fire all day, there was no-one else Jim McGuinness would have wanted standing over that ball.
A few minutes later, Ciaran Thompson touched leather on the ground when diving to regain possession. Referee Brendan Cawley spotted the indiscretion, Ryan McHugh’s complaints saw the free brought in, not that the extra yards would have mattered much with the ball in Rob Finnerty’s hands.
On such small margins do games of this nature hinge. Suddenly, after a nip and tuck battle, Galway could scent blood.
Silke bounded forward and almost brought the house down when splitting the posts. Heading towards added time, that two-point gap felt like 20 as Donegal failed to offer themselves a shaft of light.
Peadar Mogan sent another effort wide, substitute Daire O Baoill followed suit as the wheels started to come off. When the irresistible Langan screwed a late shot out off his right boot, any air left in the Donegal balloon was squeezed out.
There would be no coming back, no fairytale finish to Jim McGuinness’s first year back at the helm.
As the sound of the Saw Doctors reverberated around Croke Park, the Glenties man waited long enough to shake hands and share a few words with friend, and former IT Tralee team-mate, Padraic Joyce. After that, though, he was straight down the tunnel - what-might-have-beens sure to weigh on his shoulders into winter.
Men like Mogan and Ryan McHugh, so influential all year, were unable to exert the kind of influence that drove Donegal to Division Two promotion and an Ulster title in exhilarating fashion.
With Niall O’Donnell - their top man during the provincial campaign - only entering the fray late on, and a hamstring injury forcing the raiding Eoghan Ban Gallagher off 13 minutes into the second half, Donegal could no longer find the gaps to break through the Galway blanket.
Then there was the decision to withdraw Paddy McBrearty heading into the final 10. The last remaining playing link with the 2012 All-Ireland winners, the oldest man on the panel, but so often the coolest head in a cauldron.
McBrearty’s composure could have settled those around him as the pot bubbled.
Right now, neither the players, nor McGuinness, will want to hear about how far they have come since last year. None of that will matter in the least until the dust settles at some point, and what happened on Sunday becomes fuel for the second year of the second coming.
For Joyce it is a second shot at Sam, two years after just coming up short to Kerry.
Before throw-in, the three-time Allstar had stared solemnly at the screen as a poignant tribute was paid to John O’Mahony - the man who led Galway to All-Ireland titles in 1998 and 2001 would have been proud that one of the cornerstones of those great sides should lead them back to the cusp of the big time.
Tactically, both managers had to think on their feet throughout. Donegal welcomed the towering Jason McGee back from injury and, pressing up hard on Conor Gleeson’s kick-outs, backed themselves to win enough ball to hurt Galway.
Instead, though, it was the Tribe who largely dominated the middle, John Maher working like a Trojan and dictating so much of the play as Paul Conroy, Matthew Tierney and Cein Darcy – who replaced captain Sean Kelly in the starting 15 – engineered early scores for Dylan McHugh and Finnerty.
However, with Galway not prepared to take any chances on Shaun Patton’s kick-outs, Donegal’s patience and greater mobility allowed them to pick holes, the shooting of Gallen, Thompson, Shane O’Donnell, Caolan McGonagle and the majestic Langan a joy to behold at times.
Galway grabbed the one real momentum surge the game had to offer when Conroy’s attempt at the posts fortuitously found its way into the net on 24 minutes, Tierney’s run across the square bamboozling Patton as the ball bounced into his net to make it 1-5 to 0-5.
But even then that lead was wiped out within eight minutes, because it was always that kind of game – millimetres more than daylight.
Unhappy with the space Donegal were finding, and the manner in which Galway were being punished from range, Joyce went full thou shalt not pass – and it worked.
Star pair Damien Comer and Shane Walsh were getting little change from Brendan McCole and Eoghan Ban Gallagher, Finnerty was kept under house arrest by Mogan, but the supporting cast played a lead part.
John Maher and Dylan McHugh were magnificent as the screw was slowly but surely turned, Conroy’s calmness around the middle a reference point for the rest as every pass, every decision became critical.
Just as Armagh had taken charge in extra-time the previous evening, a well-timed surge towards the line was always going to win this one.
Joyce was a ball of agitated excitement as the final seconds ticked down, the spring at last able to uncoil when Niall O’Donnell’s ball into the square dropped into the assured hands of Paul Conroy, Croke Park erupting for the second day in-a-row.
The west awake – but in a fortnight’s time they will hope to deliver their travelling Tribe to dreamland.
Donegal: S Patton; E Gallagher, B McCole, P Mogan; R McHugh, C McGonagle (0-1), C McColgan; J McGee, M Langan (0-4); S O’Donnell (0-1), C Thompson (0-2, 0-1 mark), C Moore; A Doherty, P McBrearty (0-3, 0-1 free), O Gallen (0-3). Subs: D Ó Baoill for McColgan (30), J Mac Ceallbhuí for Gallagher (48), H McFadden for McGee (59), N O’Donnell for McBrearty (59), O Doherty for A Doherty (63)
Galway: C Gleeson; J McGrath, S Fitzgerald, J Glynn; D McHugh (0-2), L Silke (0-2), S Mulkerrin; P Conroy (1-1), C Darcy; M Tierney, J Maher, C McDaid; R Finnerty (0-4, 0-2 frees), D Comer, S Walsh (0-3, 0-2 frees). Subs: J Heaney for Darcy (57), D O’Flaherty for Walsh (63), J Daly for Fitzgerald (65), K Molloy for Comer (70+2), T Culhane for McDaid (70+2)
Referee: B Cawley (Kildare)
Att: 67,002
