February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Jack Flynn
The Donegal train just keeps on rolling along. The class of Senior Football Div. 1 beat up on their latest opponent, Roscommon, in typically brutal fashion Sunday at Gaelic Park, winning 3-15 to 2-4.
But although it is Donegal’s full forward line that has been doing the most damage in recent matches, it was veteran Leslie McGettigan who was perhaps the most dangerous man on the pitch during Sunday’s match. McGettigan, however, refused to get caught up in his team’s successes.
“It was just a win,” he said. “That’s all we wanted to do. Now we can look forward to the playoffs.”
Donegal, as is their fashion, jumped out to an early lead in the match. McGettigan scored a goal and two points while Donal Breslin added a point of his own before Roscommon could answer.
A Barry Gogarty point was followed by a fine goal from Aiden Smith, and Roscommon found themselves within two points of Donegal, 1-3 to 1-1.
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They would get no closer. Two more McGettigan points were followed by a Tadgh Donovan score, and Donegal had a 1-6 to 1-1 lead.
To its credit, Roscommon did a fine job keeping the high-scoring Donegal off the board. Going into the half, they trailed by just five points, 1-7 to 1-2, and were still close enough to make a run at their opponents.
However, after McGettigan (who scored all but three of his team’s first-half points) and Gogarty traded points to make the score 1-8 to 1-3 in favor of Donegal, the bottom fell out on Roscommon.
Two goals and seven points later, Roscommon found themselves staring down the barrel of an 18-point deficit, the victim of an incredible Donegal scoring run. Goals by Kieran Keavaney and Stephen Cassidy were the two most damaging blows.
Cassidy, who had just one point in the first half, exploded in the second half, scoring a goal and three points.
A late goal by Kevin Madden and a late point by Richie Maher made the final score sound closer than the match really was.
Donegal has been the bridesmaid but never the bride in each of the last three years, losing in the Senior Football finals each time. The goal of the team is to win it all in 1998, and they may well be capable of doing it. Even so, neither McGettigan nor the rest of his team want to rest on their accomplishments so far, preferring to stay focused on the task at hand.
“When you lose three in a row, second best is no good anymore,” McGettigan said. “But until then, we’ll keep it low key.”
Donegal scorers: McGettigan 1-6, Cassidy 1-4, Keavaney 1-3, Breslin and Donovan 0-1.
Roscommon: A. Smith and Madden 1-0, Gogarty 0-2, Smith and Maher 0-1.