Donegal shatter Armagh and claim Ulster title for the ages on penalties

Ulster Senior Football Championship final

Armagh 0-20 0-20 Donegal*

*Donegal win 6-5 on penalties

Shaun Patton gobbled up Shea McPartlan’s second penalty in Clones as Donegal seized victory and Jim McGuinness joined the late, great Art McRory and Joe Kernan on four Anglo Celt titles to render Kieran McGeeney’s side utterly dejected.

This was the very essence of a classic, no solace to a side who will reflect on the days of replays and think what could have been. Today and many other days, but today more than most.

The sides were level 12 times. They said it would be tight. They didn’t know the half of it.

Aidan Forker’s opening score said it all, punching the air like it was a winner. You knew this was a day where every score counts.

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The opening half shootout defied the notion that Gaelic football needs to change at all. The second was perhaps more what was anticipated - though all the while enthralling.

As eight tedious minutes ticked by, Oisin Gallen’s was the only the second score that had broken the tension.

Tight and tense as you’d expect. A nervy Donegal maybe less so, after a rousing Jim McGuinness pre-match team-talk that made you question how they ever lose.

10 minutes of loose unfruitful exchanges and then a threaded ball through. It half opened up for Peadar Mogan, but not quite. The sensible option on a day for sensible heads. A point and the lead, but not for long.

For next was Rory Grugan resistance that preceded Oisin Gallen excellence that preceded a fisted score from young Oisin Conaty, an earlier wide now out of his mind.

Level pegging, 0-3 each after the opening quarter. Settling in phase complete. Nerves out of the system.

Next? An injection of pace.

A Gallen free. A Blaine Hughes kickout awry. A two-point lead never felt bigger.

Conor Turbitt’s strike was the score of the day, then Daire O’Baoil replied with a clinker before Turbitt came again. Whatever you can do, I can do better. A tub of Christmas sweets, quality followed by quality followed by quality.

Soon Andrew Murnin joined the scoresheet. This time 20 minutes gone. Level again.

Ciaran Mackin made it 0-08 0-07 in a blink, with Shane O’Donnell’s second probably missed by many outside the Gerry Arthur Stand as they scrambled to avoid the predicted showers.

Less predictable was a white flag from Ben Crealey, a man not noted for his scoring ability, not that it showed in a flash of finesse.

Rian O’Neill’s wide was the first in what felt like ages, the shooting exemplary. Gallen had five white flags before the clock struck half an hour.

0-9 each now after 30 minutes as Armagh and Donegal shook off the dirty nametag of Ulster football but couldn’t shake off the other.

You know it’s a classic when it feels like a classic before it’s even over.

33 minutes, a Gallen wide and Donegal’s first. Remarkable, as was the discipline, with only one scorable free out of eighteen points.

As half-time beckoned the sting goes out of it. The rain poured as Armagh held tight and RTÉ couldn’t. Signal gone as Crealey grabbed another. A mark this time.

Armagh’s minimal half-time advantage felt momentous. Get your breath.

A wild shot at either end kickstarted the latter period, then a missed Campbell mark. Maybe they’re human after all, you think, before Turbitt hits a fourth.

You’d forget referee Martin McNally was there. A backward compliment, a certain sign of a super refereeing performance. No news is good news.

As Rian O’Neill missed a ‘45, Paddy McBrearty belatedly entered the fray in what felt like a pre-scripted momentum swing. Instead, 20-year-old Conaty made it 0-12 0-09.

McGeeney’s men were swarming now. The turnovers mounted, but never the fouls. Stefan Campbell off the left made one such example count. Naturally unnatural such was the ease.

A missed Gallen ‘45 and the cut of Jim McGuinness without animation was reaching the alarm bell stage. Niall O’Donnell poured water on Orchard flames.

Traded scores from Michael Langan and one Rian O’Neill followed, likewise Campbell and Niall O’Donnell.

Tit for tat again, but this time with a three-point Armagh cushion. 14 wins from 15 Ulster Senior Football Championship matches, surely Jim had a trick up his sleeve? He always has a trick up his sleeve.

On 56 minutes Gallen reared his head again, then Jason McGee as the Tír Chonaill men’s seventh scorer. A Ryan McHugh turnover on the hour felt as though his side still believed.

At 0-15 0-14, why wouldn’t they? Holding the ball, Donegal settled themselves as ten minutes to go became eight.

An Aaron McKay turnover, but no score. Save that for McBrearty. Level pegging, extra time loomed even with six to play. Six minutes of nothing.

Full-time whistle anxiety transpired into what became a 23-minute scoreless spell for Armagh, in a half they had arguably dominated for large parts.

Three added minutes, a huge Rory Grugan steal and Tiernan Kelly’s shot at glory that tailed right and wide. Was that the chance?

Donegal’s failure to grab a winner in the seconds remaining meant it was certainly a chance, but all was not lost. Extra time in back-to-back games for Donegal and back-to-back years for Armagh.

Cagey was the word on everyone’s lips and that early shootout felt like a game from another generation. McBrearty, with experience to transcend generations, no finer man to break the deadlock.

If Armagh have a reputation as chokers, it would sting Aidan Nugent. A champion of Armagh, of Ulster, of Ireland, the Cullyhanna man made his presence felt off the bench.

So too Jeaic MacCeallabhuí, then Nugent again. Armagh 0-17 0-16 Donegal. Half-time of extra-time. Orchard minds surely pessimistically wandered. On we went.

Mogan with his second, to split hairs again on the 11th time level. Jarly Óg’s legs began to stretch and so too Armagh’s lead. Nugent’s third was Armagh’s 20th.

Daire O’Baoil cut the advantage to the minimum as McGuinness wiped a sweaty brow and McBrearty crossed the same line he entered. The first time late, this time early.

Two minutes to go, cue an Odhran Doherty stunner. Surely not penalties again. McGeeney cut the frail figure of a man who had just seen an open casket.

Extra-time, not so cagey after all. Spot kicks nonetheless. Blaine Hughes to succeed where Ethan Rafferty couldn’t? God knows what could have been going through the minds of either.

Donegal first. 1-0. 1-1. 2-1. 2-2. And neither Hughes nor Shaun Patton within a whisker of the four.

3-2. 3-3. The Europa League final of 2021 and David de Gea’s nightmares comes to mind as Turbitt’s two-step approach pays off.

Patton gives Nugent a scare. Tiernan Kelly is shook to the core. 5-5 nonetheless.

Sudden death and Aaron Doherty pings in another. Shea McPartlan with the job no man wants, not least an Armagh man.

History repeats itself. Jimmy’s winning matches.

Scorers

Armagh:

Conor Turbitt 0-4, Aidan Nugent 0-3 (1f), Ben Crealey 0-2 (1m), Stefan Campbell 0-2, Oisin Conaty 0-2, Andrew Murnin 0-2, Aidan Forker, Rory Grugan, Ciaran Mackin, Rian O’Neill (f), Oisin O’Neill 0-1 each.

Donegal:

Oisín Gallen 0-6 (2f), Shane O’Donnell 0-2, Paddy McBrearty 0-2 (1f), Niall O’Donnell 0-2, Peadar Mogan 0-2, Daire O’Baoil 0-2, Jason McGee, Jeaic MacCeallabhuí, Michael Langan, Odhran Doherty 0-1 each.

Armagh:

Blaine Hughes; Paddy Burns, Aaron McKay, Peter McGrane; Joe McElroy, Ciaran Mackin, Aidan Forker; Rian O’Neill, Ben Crealey; Stefan Campbell, Rory Grugan, Greg McCabe; Oisin Conaty, Andrew Murnin, Conor Turbitt.

Subs used: Jarly Óg Burns, Aidan Nugent, Tiernan Kelly, Oisin O’Neill, Jason Duffy, Jemar Hall

Donegal:

Shaun Patton; Mark Curran, Brendan McCole, Ciaran Moore; Ryan McHugh, Caolan McGonagle, Peadar Mogan; Jason McGee, Michael Langan; Shane O Donnell, Ciaran Thompson, Daire O Baoill; Eoghan Ban Gallagher, Oisin Gallen, Niall O Donnell.

Subs used: Paddy McBrearty, Jamie Brennan, Caolan McColgan, Aaron Doherty, Jeaic MacCeallabhuí, Odhran Doherty