IT WAS TENSE, tetchy and particularly tight, so much so that when breath was drawn, there was nothing to separate Donegal and Monaghan.
Donegal 1-11 Monaghan 0-14
Monaghan had Conor McManus to thank for rescuing a replay, prising it from determined Donegal jaws and Ulster’s heavyweights will do it all again next weekend.
With the six minutes of added time almost up on Joe McQuillan’s timepiece, McManus sailed over his eighth point of the evening and his third of the added period.
McManus had levelled things up from an imposing 50-metre free and the Clontibret man did likewise with the game’s final play after Christy Toye’s fisted point had Donegal momentarily back in front.
[adrotate group=”43″]It was a game that looked beyond Donegal, who went down to 14 men when Martin McElhinney was shown a black card on 55 minutes following a collision with Drew Wylie.
With the St Michael’s man having been yellow carded for a challenge on Owen Duffy in the first half, it meant that Donegal were down a man.
They were three points down, 0-10 to 0-7, and on the back end of some uncharacteristic misses at that point and they were wayward seven times in all during the second half.
The signs were pointing them for the qualifiers and yet with their next attack, they fashioned a goal. Martin O’Reilly’s deft pass inside asked the question of Odhrán Mac Niallais and the Gaoth Dobhair man answered wonderfully.
Mac Niallais showed majestic skill to step aside two Monaghan defenders before picking his spot in the far corner, his low shot going under Rory Beggan and into the net.
This was intense and frenetic, a real bruiser of an encounter between two sides who have become very familiar with one another in recent times, this their fourth meeting in a row in the Championship.
The hits were hot and hard, with one ferocious Michael Murphy shoulder rocking Drew Wylie to the core.
At times, it felt like last year’s Ulster final all over again with missed chances inhibiting Donegal, Murphy squandering three chances and McBrearty another early in the second half.
Donegal were off the mark after only 13 seconds. Murphy won possession from the throw-in, made ground and off-loaded to the rampaging Karl Lacey, who steadied himself to score.
[adrotate group=”46″]Lacey was selected here after not togging out for the quarter-final win over Fermanagh a fortnight ago because of an injury.
Lacey came in to sweep in front of McManus, who was being shackled tightly by Paddy McGrath, while Kieran Gillespie came in for his first Championship start.
Gillespie was handed the number 3 shirt that usually rests upon the shoulders of Gaoth Dobhair colleague Neil McGee, who failed in his bid to get a suspension overturned.
Murphy spent most of the first half close to the Monaghan goal and on one occasion in the 10th minute had a sniff of goal, but Beggan, the Monaghan goalkeeper, got a hand on Martin O’Reilly’s delivery.
[adrotate group=”70″]Murphy recycled the loose ball and struck over, via an upright.
Rory Gallagher expressed a worry during the week about the number of frees Donegal had been conceding in their own half and McManus was given four points from frees in that first half.
Donegal went 15 minutes without a score after Murphy put them 0-3 to 0-1 in front and, in the intervening spell, Monaghan landed four points, three of them by McManus and the other a gorgeous effort by Conor McCarthy.
McBrearty had a relatively quiet first half, but the Kilcar man scored three points in the final seven minutes before the break. A lovely looping point, after a superb burst by Eoin McHugh, sandwiched two frees.
[adrotate group=”74″]McManus leveled things up in added time and tempers boiled over as the teams parted ways for the interval.
Donegal scored just once in the opening 16 minutes of the second half, that a Murphy free, and there was a sense that things might be creeping away from them.
They did work two big goal chances, but Beggan saved well from the debutant Gillespie after a sweeping move involving McElhinney and Thompson and McBrearty settled for a point as he swivelled back onto his more trusted left boot.
[adrotate group=”66″]Karl O’Connell kicked two fabulous points and the three-point gap felt massive given the thin margins that had been previously.
McElhinney’s black card and Mac Niallais’ goal – his third in two Championship games – swung the emotions back-and-forth again before those draining six added minutes concluded with McManus levelling things up for a seventh and final time.
Donegal: Mark Anthony McGinley; Paddy McGrath, Kieran Gillespie, Eamon McGee; Ryan McHugh, Frank McGlynn, Karl Lacey (0-1); Rory Kavanagh; Odhrán MacNiallais (1-0); Anthony Thompson, Martin McElhinney, Eoin McHugh (0-1); Patrick McBrearty (0-5, 3f), Michael Murphy (0-3, 2f), Martin O’Reilly. Sub: Mark McHugh for McGlynn (65), Christy Toye (0-1) for Kavanagh (68), Eoghan Ban Gallagher for O’Reilly (75)
Monaghan: Rory Beggan; Colin Walshe, Drew Wylie, Ryan Wylie; Fintan Kelly, Vinny Corey, Kieran Duffy; Karl O’Connell (0-2), Kieran Hughes; Shane Carey (0-1), Owen Duffy (0-1), Ryan McAnespie; Conor McCarthy (0-2, 1f), Darren Hughes, Conor McManus (0-8, 7f). Subs: Daniel McKenna for McCarthy (59), Dessie Mone for D.Wylie (59), Conor Boyle for Walshe (61, black card), Jack McCarron for Carey (65), Dick Clerkin for McAnespie (70).
Referee: Joe McQuillan (Cavan).
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