Bank of Ireland Dr McKenna Cup semi-final: Donegal 0-20 Armagh 1-10
A POWER-PACKED second-half performance from Nathan Mullins inspired Donegal to a deserved victory over an experimental Armagh side in Celtic Park on Saturday night and set up a Dr McKenna Cup final meeting with Tyrone in mid-February.
Mullins – son of Dublin great, Brian – gave a complete performance and finished with two points to his name against a game Orchard side who had given Donegal plenty of headaches in the opening 20 minutes.
The towering midfielder had close competition for the man-of-the-match accolade from scoring machine Paddy McBrearty, who finished with a tally of 0-8.
Mullins, and indeed Donegal, were upstaged in the first half by Armagh’s debutant full-forward Eamon McGeown, who hit 1-3.
The sides were level at the interval on a score of Armagh 1-7 to Donegal’s 0-10, but a scoring surge in the third quarter from Paddy McBrearty, elegant substitute Niall O’Donnell and the beavering Darach O’Connor pushed the home side to victory.
In contrast to Armagh, who have many of their regulars missing, Donegal were able to field a reasonably strong side, which has now notched 7-42 over the course of the McKenna Cup, further evidence of Declan Bonner’s commitment to making them much more attacking than last year.
Ciaran Thompson was also welcomed back to the fold for the first time since the heavy defeat to Galway last summer and given a start on the 40.
Armagh, who haven’t won a McKenna Cup title since 1994, fielded a very youthful side with James Cosgrove, Ronan Lappin and McGeown getting first starts.
They settled quicker, though, with McGeown causing mayhem any time the ball came near him and giving Stephen McMenamin a torrid time.
Michael Stevenson opened the Orchard account from a 45 before McGeown showed good balance from a long ball to add a second in the sixth minute.
McBrearty hit two points on the spin before McGeown restored Armagh’s advantage, but Donegal then had a great chance of a goal when Marty O’Reilly put McBrearty through on goal only for the Kilcar man to hesitate briefly and allow Armagh ’keeper Patrick Morrison to scramble the ball away for a 45.
McGeown did even more damage in the 12th minute when he fielded a long ball and saw his shot saved by Donegal keeper Mark Anthony McGinley only to find the net at the second attempt.
Suddenly, unfancied Armagh were ahead by 1-3 to 0-2 before Donegal switched Caolan Ward to curb the McGeown threat.
Nathan Mullins, in particular, and Jason McGee were gaining a foothold in midfield and they hit five points on the trot from the 15th minute to the 22nd minute.
But there was no doubting the winner of this affair in a one-sided second half, during which Armagh endured a 27-minute scoring famine.
For Donegal defender Paul Brennan this was the ideal preparation for the long trip to Kerry next week for the Allianz Football League Division One opener.
“I don’t think that anyone in Donegal would have been happy with our first half display, but we managed to turn things around in the second half,” he said.
“We started a bit slowly, I don’t know if it was fellows saving themselves for next week.
“Eamon McGeown caused us a bit of bother in the first half and then we had to refocus and deal with that situation and I thought we did fairly well.
“We moved up a gear in the second half and we knew we had to.
“I think there is a lot more in us and we will need to move it up even a few more gears against Kerry.
“I thought Niall O’Donnell took his chances very well when he came on.
“But there will be quite a battle for places in defence so it will keep all of us on our toes.”
Armagh midfielder Stephen Sheridan did not agree that this was a weakened Orchard county side.
“People are calling those [missing]players regulars and people might say that we went out with a lesser team but we don’t believe that.
“We believe that every player in that squad is pushing for a place and trying to go out and wear that Armagh jersey with pride.
“We came out there to compete tonight and we were playing with pride and for a spot in a McKenna Cup final and we are disappointed that we did not push on and get a result.
“There were a few sloppy mistakes on our part and they had the experience to keep tipping over points which kept the scoreboard ticking over and maybe killed the game off.
“For 40 or 50 minutes we were well in the game but there are parts of the game that we need to analyse and show where we need to improve.”
Donegal: MA McGinley; E Gallagher, S McMenamin, C Ward; E Doherty, P Brennan, T McClenaghan; J McGee, N Mullins (0-2); C McGonagle, C Thompson (0-1) L McLoone; D O’Connor (0-3, 0-1 free), P McBrearty (0-8, 0-3 frees) M O’Reilly
Subs: N O’Donnell (0-3) for T McClenaghan (29), C McGinley for S McMenamin (h-t), S McBrearty (0-3) for C Thompson (41), K McBrearty for J McGee (56) D O’Baoill for M O’Reilly (64) B McCole for P McBrearty (72)
Yellow card: P McBrearty (34)
Armagh: P Morrison; J McAlinden, O Lappin, J Cosgrove; J McElroy, R Kennedy, D McKenna; A Findon, S Sheridan (0-1); R Lappin, A Duffy, C White (0-1); M Stevenson (0-3, 0-1 45), E McGeown (1-3) O Mac Iomhair (0-1); Subs: R Owens for S Sheridan (h-t), R McQuillan for J Cosgrove (h-t), E English (0-1) for C White, C McGeary for D McKenna (52), D McQuade for R Lappin (56) S McCoy for O Mac Iomhair
Yellow card: Jamie Cosgrave (25)
Referee: Niall McKenna (Monaghan)
