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Donegal pass Jordanstown test
07.01.09
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Donegal...3-14 S. Griffin 1-7 (1 penalty, 0-2 frees); B. Roper 1-2; C. Bonner 0-3; R. Wherity 1-0; B. Boyle 0-1; L. Thompson 0-1 Jordanstown...0-13 C. Donnelly 0-8 (8 frees); S. McAleer 0-1; B. Boggs 0-1; N. McKeever 0-1; D. Mulholland 0-1; K. Anderson 0-1 Report: Inishowen Independent AFTER a tumultuous autumn in the boardroom, and an appointment process for the new manager that ran from September until the mouth of Christmas, Donegal finally got down to football on Sunday when they faced Jordanstown in the opening game of the Gaelic Life Dr McKenna Cup in MacCumhaill Park. The game was as low key as could be, with perhaps around 1,000 paying spectators in attendance to see the start of John Joe Doherty’s reign as county manager. These days, the McKenna Cup is little more than a preseason competition that allows managers to try things out in advance of the league. It also allows the GAA hierarchy to tinker with the playing rules, and the competition will be played under ‘experimental rules’, the most notable of which sees players receiving yellow cards leaving the field, although they can be replaced by a substitute. |
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However, so abysmally awful
were Jordanstown that it’s hard to know what John Joe
will have learned from the afternoon’s exercise. The
teams never got out of first gear, and with players
mindful of the new rules, there was barely a tackle made
over the 70 minutes. There were a few pointers that the new management may have taken. Ardara’s Brendan Boyle returned to intercounty action and performed well in patches at midfield. Ciaran Bonner also returned and while the Glenswilly man took some time to settle in, he had a lively second half. Malin’s Charlie Byrne, who was making his first start for Donegal, was diligent in defence and distributed every ball he won accurately and efficiently. But St Naul’s forward Stephen Griffin stole the show, assuming the free taking responsibilities in the absence of Colm McFadden, hitting 1-7 and running the Jordanstown defence ragged. The students mastered Donegal by four points in |
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the corresponding fixture
last year, but this was a vastly different team that was
further weakened by the unavailability of Tyrone star
Colm Cavanagh and Ballinderry’s Daniel Bateson. Donegal, too, were missing marquee players with most of the St Eunan’s contingent – including new team captain Rory Kavanagh – away on holiday and the likes of McFadden, Christy Toye, Kevin Cassidy, Karl Lacey and Neil McGee also unavailable. They who got off to a blistering start and three points from Stephen Griffin and one each from Brian Roper and Brendan Boyle had Donegal 0-5 to 0-1 ahead after ten minutes. Roper made his senior championship debut with Donegal in 1996 and will turn 35 in 2009, but the years haven’t diluted his appetite for the game. He was his usual industrious self, helping out in defence and scoring two fine points in the first half and sneaking in ahead of a defender to get the first of Donegal’s three goals. He left the field shortly before the end, replaced by Buncrana’s Odhran Doherty, to warm applause from the Donegal supporters. Sunday marked Roper’s 146th appearance for Donegal, and he will equal Matt Gallagher’s record number of appearance when he lines out against Fermanagh, as he surely will, in Ballyshannon next weekend. Roper had just scored his second point, which, like the first, barely crept over the bar when Jordanstown’s day got even worse when they lost both Stephen McAleer and Kieran Nolan to yellow cards within a minute. Both men were replaced, but after the departure of McAleer big Neil Gallagher had things pretty much his own way at midfield and fielded a fortune of high ball for the remainder of the game. Jordanstown were over dependent on Ciaran Donnelly for scores from placed balls, and the Tyrone youngster hit two superb frees from near the sideline as Donegal led by 0-9 to 0-5 at the break. Jordanstown started the second half a little bit better, and added points through Tomas McCann and Niall McKeever, but Stephen Griffin continued from where he left off and pointed twice from play within the first five minutes of the half. Donegal’s first goal came in the 45th minute. Ciaran Bonner drove a ball low across the face of goal and Roper snuck in ahead of a defender to flick the ball past Cathal Murdock in the Jordanstown net to make it 1-11 to 0-8. Donegal lost Paddy McDaid to a yellow card for a second ‘black card’ offence mid way through the half and he was replaced by Raymond Sweeney, another man who didn’t feature much during Brian McIver’s reign. Jordanstown reduced the deficit to four points through Ciaran Donnelly and Danny Mulholland, but whatever faint hopes they had of mounting a comeback were dashed eight minutes from full time when substitute Michael Doherty was fouled in the parallelogram and Stephen Griffin goaled with a well struck penalty kick. Ciaran Bonner added his third point before substitute Ross Wherity scored the goal of the day when he beat the Jordanstown keeper from 20 yards with a perfectly placed shot to the bottom left hand corner. In the end, it was a facile nine point victory margin for Donegal but the Jordanstown game was like a mock examination. Next weekend’s match away to Ballyshannon against Fermanagh will be a different kettle of fish. Donegal: Paul Durcan; Frank McGlynn, Eamon McGee, Paddy McDaid; Charlie Byrne, Barry Monaghan, Shane McGowan; Neil Gallagher, Brendan Boyle; Ciaran Bonner, David Walsh, Brian Roper; Leon Thompson, Ryan Bradley, Stephen Griffin. Subs: Owen Wade for McGowan (43 mins); Ross Wherity for Bradley and Michael Doherty for Walsh (both 50 mins); Ray Sweeney for McDaid (yellow card, 55 mins); K. McMenamin for Thompson (66 mins); Odhran Doherty for Roper (68 mins). Jordanstown: Cathal Murdock; Aidan Girvan, Colm Murney, Gareth Haughey; Conor Galligan, Darren Hughes, Brendan Boggs; James Colgan, Stephen McAleer; Kieran Nolan, Tomas McCann, Ciaran Donnelly; Declan Murphy; Niall McKeever; Danny Mulholland. Subs: Kevin Anderson for McAleer (yellow carded, 16 mins); Peter Hughes for Nolan (yellow carded, 17 mins); Sean Murdock for Murphy (62 mins); Cathal McCaffrey for Colgan (67 mins). For full coverage of all your weekend sport, read the Inishowen Independent. |
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