A SHARP AND BITING February chill was enough to keep the feet on the ground, but Rory Gallagher was entitled to grin after seeing Donegal purr to a third League win this spring.
The stage could well have been in a Championship theatre.
Mayo – who have never won a Legaue game in Donegal – were perhaps the perfect opponent for a Donegal side that was fresh from a mid-February training camp in Tenerife.
Donegal boast a proud record in Ballybofey and are now unbeaten in 14 League and Championship matches in a row at the venue.
Picture caption: Ryan McHugh, despite close attentions of two Mayo players, gets this ball away. Picture by Geraldine Diver.
Next to Tyrone, Mayo are now at the top of the Donegal hit list these days and a 1-14 to 1-12 win represented Donegal’s first win over the westerners since the 2012 All-Ireland final.
Since then, Mayo have recorded four wins, but Tír Chonaill came here aiming to make a point.
Leo McLoone’s goal helped them do just that. For the first time since 2007, when they won Division One, Donegal have won three top flight games in a row.
You have to go back to 2002 for the previous time that happened.
“What pleased me most about today, we were far from at our best,” Gallagher observed after a win that told him a lot about his team.
“To be fair, I thought Mayo were the better team in the first half by a long shot, but we dug in and we chipped over a few scores.
“I thought in the second half we turned the screw. Even before the penalty we were the better team and showed good control of the game.”
Donegal were beaten hands down in the kickouts department in the first half, but were only 0-8 to 0-7 behind at half-time.
When Diarmuid O’Connor goaled from a penalty and Donegal lost Neil Gallagher to a black card a minute after he’d been sent in to shore up the middle, it looked ominous.
Donegal’s goal was vintage stuff.
Anthony Thompson won a break and Donegal surged forward with Christy Toye and Rory Kavanagh – veterans of a combined 287 appearances – central figures before McLoone’s precise finish lifted the decibal output.
With Down, Cork and Mayo beaten, Donegal have three of their last four games away from home. While Gallagher’s talk is still of safety, the form book is urging him to look toward a League semi-final.
“Another point or two we might be safe, but we’ll take it game on game at this stage,” Gallagher shrugged.
“The great thing about Division One is there are great challenges from week to week. You have to be at your very best to survive, move on to Kerry now next week that’s a lot to look forward to.
“It’s been a great start. I always felt today was going to be a much greater test (than the other two), Mayo probably upped the levels the last couple of weeks.”
Rarely, if ever, have Donegal had the luxury of being able to ‘hold off’ players of the calibre of Karl Lacey and Colm McFadden without the risk of serious consequence in League football.
“They are just training away, they are 100% fit and we’ll hold them off for another week or two. They’re grand,” Gallagher said, as if to reinforce the notion that his squad is deeper now than ever.
“They’ll play before the end of the league but it’s a double edged sword. They are just wanting to look after their bodies and it’s all their own circumstances.
“Colm had a third baby, Karl is lecturing a couple of days up until maybe the end of April in Blanchardstown IT on a Monday and Tuesday. Plus his body has had a lot of knocks over the last number of years.
“If they were there, we’d be sticking them in. We wanted to build our squad and give the other lads as much game time as possible too.”
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