WHEN Gary Walsh eyeballed Charlie Redmond at the Canal End just eight minutes into the 1992 All-Ireland final, the Donegal goalkeeper knew the eyes of the land were upon him.
Dessie Farrell was fouled and Dublin, the raging hot favourites, had a penalty so early in the game.
Walsh’s brother had a premonition that the Dubs would have a penalty.
His dream pictured Gary saving to his right. Redmond’s penalty, as it happened, went wide of the post on his left.
“It would have been nicer if I’d saved it,” Walsh said.
[adrotate group=”38″]“The penalty was a big boost at the time. If they had scored it our heads could have dropped. We did well just before half-time to get us a good lead.
“You can’t prepare yourself for facing up to a penalty in those circumstances.
“Charlie didn’t have a great record on penalties and that was probably weighing heavily on his shoulders.
“My brother in England used to think more about games than I did. His dream wasn’t quite right but he wasn’t far off.”
Donegal led 0-10 to 0-7 at half-time and tore up the bookmakers’ odds.
When Declan Bonner gave that famous clenched fist salute to the
Hogan Stand, the game was up for Dublin: Donegal 0-18 Dublin 0-14 and a county drowned in sheer euphoria.
Walsh said: “We had nothing to lose. We knew we had our own preparation down to a tee.
“That’s all we concentrated on was getting our own end right. Brian (McEniff) kept us shielded from the limelight and the hype.
[adrotate group=”70″]“There were loads of rumours about what was going on in the Dublin camp but we just set about looking after our own end.
“There was maturity in the Donegal camp by then. We’d had a couple of big, disappointing defeats that had rocked us in previous years but we were ready for it in ‘92.
“ We wanted it so badly and a lot of boys knew it was coming near the end of the line.”
In the spring of 1993, Donegal and Dublin met again in a National League final. After a 0-9 apiece draw, Dublin won the replay 0-10 to 0-6.
[adrotate group=”37″]Redmond was sent off in the drawn game and a minute later Keith Barr was also red carded by Brian White. For the replay, White was again in charge and he dismissed Tommy Carr, who drew a boot off Brian Murray.
Carr was given a six-month suspension for his trouble, but it was later reduced to four following an appeal.
[adrotate group=”68″]Walsh said: “There was always going to be an undercurrent from 1992. We were big rivals and Dublin probably had more to gain from those days. They wanted it more and got the upper hand on us.
“The one big regret I have is that we didn’t win a League title. We missed out on ones we should have won.”
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