February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The same couldn’t be said about Donegal, who appeared divided on and off the field. At the outset, Colm McFadden stood alone, apart from his teammates, during the national anthem, and then when Brendan Devenney was sent off after 58 minutes, he pushed the referee as he left the pitch, an act that will surely see him hit with a hefty suspension.
“Indiscipline off the field and indiscipline on it,” a dejected manager Brian McEniff said. “We missed some close-in frees and ran up a load of wides; it’s a game we’ll regret losing.”
If some Donegal players let their county down, Niall McCready, Barry Monaghan, Brian Roper and Kevin Cassidy gave everything for the cause, but after a promising start, Eamonn Maguire fired in a goal for Fermanagh.
Trailing by a point at the break, Donegal at last got their act together with some impressive scores by Christy Toye and Adrian Sweeney. It was 1-8 to 0-11 going into extra time and while a tenacious Fermanagh landed two frees from Maguire and Tom Brewster, Donegal were guilty of some atrocious wides.
“We just hung in and hung in without playing particularly well,” said Fermanagh manager Charlie Mulgrew, a Donegal man. “It wasn’t that strange until I realized we were going to win the game and then the emotion of beating my own county hit me. Thoughts of your club and your own county come to the fore. It was very hard to make sense of it.”
DERRY 0-10, LIMERICK 0-7
If the football was underwhelming at Hyde Park, the result was certainly predictable as Derry advanced to the All-Ireland quarterfinals after getting the better of a weary Limerick side.
Four late points from Enda Muldoon, Gavin Donaghy, Paddy Bradley and Conleth Moran earned Derry the result as Limerick clearly felt the after effects of their two Munster final contests against Kerry.
“We were victims of the system,” manager Liam Kearns said after his players’ third big championship game in three weekends. “Derry had the legs on us at the finish.”
Limerick were in front by 0-4 to 0-3 at halftime, having had the benefit of the breeze. However, with 10 minutes remaining they were still a point clear and it seemed as if they might hold on to record a notable victory. However, Derry put in that strong finish to book their place in the last eight of the championship.
HURLING
CLARE 1-13, KILKENNY 1-13
With Kilkenny’s renewed momentum, Clare were supposed to be just a temporary roadblock in last Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling quarter-final at Croke Park, but it didn’t pan out that way and the two teams have to meet again in what should be another compelling installment.
It seemed for a few minutes that the contest would continue after the scheduled end of hostilities when the public address announced that there would be extra time. As confusion reigned and players handed back their swapped jerseys, the GAA admitted the cock-up. No extra time for quarterfinals, just for qualifier games — replay on Saturday at Thurles. Sorry about that, folks.
If the two managers were content to down cudgels, no one among a riveted 37,000 attendance would have minded a little more value for money. In the end, a superbly struck injury-time point by Jamesie O’Connor gave Clare a deserved draw.
“To be honest, I’d begun to doubt myself and some of the players after the Waterford game,” Clare manager Anthony Daly said. “But we’ve recovered a bit of pride now and I think we played with a bit of heart out there.”
Heart, there was, but Clare offered a lot more as they matched the All-Ireland champions every puck of the way. Kilkenny lost defender Tommy Walsh for a second yellow-card offense during the first half, and yet Clare didn’t alter a game plan that was working well. With Alan Markham deployed as a sweeper in defense, Niall Gilligan and Tony Carmody took on Kilkenny with a two-man attack.
John Hoyne’s immaculately struck goal following a D.J. Carey assist had given Kilkenny a 1-7 to 0-6 lead by the time Walsh was dismissed in the 40th minute. However, Davy Fitzgerald had the resultant penalty saved, yet Clare continued to press.
With Tony Griffin beginning to make an impact and Ollie Baker introduced from the bench, Griffin won another penalty and this time Gilligan’s low shot found the target to level the scores. Then James McGarry saved brilliantly from Carmody and a Clare victory seemed more probable than possible, before Henry Shefflin slipped in behind the defense where Frank Lohan fouled him and Kilkenny themselves had a penalty.
Shefflin chose to drive the ball over the ball, but there was still time for O’Connor’s equalizer.
“Looking at it at times you’d say we were under severe pressure,” Kilkenny manager Brian Cody said. “But then looking at the scoreboard you could never say we were under severe pressure. Losing Tommy Walsh was a tough one, but Clare played very well, they were really going strong.”
CORK 2-26, ANTRIM 0-10
In the other hurling qualifier played last weekend, Cork were much too strong for Antrim. Before the game, which was played at Croke Park, Antrim manager Dinny Cahill had criticized Cork’s Brian Corcoran and Niall McCarthy, but his comments came back to haunt him as the winners turned on an exhibition.
Corcoran responded by rapping home both Cork’s goals, while Ben O’Connor scored five points with Jonathan O’Callaghan and Joe Deane each adding four.
“My remarks were blown out of all proportion,” Cahill said. “I was more critical of the Tipperary defense than I was of Brian Corcoran or Niall McCarthy. I don’t think what I said had any bearing on how any of the players performed.”