Donegal fail students test 12.01.12
Power NI Dr McKenna Cup – Section C

Donegal ...0-9 UUJ...0-11 by Damian Dowds at O’Donnell Park DONEGAL tasted defeat on the first day of their 2012 season when Jordanstown university outscored them by 11 points to nine in O’Donnell Park on Sunday. It was a scrappy game, but presented an intriguing insight into what Donegal can expect from their opponents for the rest of the year. UUJ were really up for it, flying into challenges and desperately seeking the opportunity to put one over on the defending Ulster champions. It’s only a taste of what Jim McGuinness’ team will face from here on in: when you’re the top dog, every other pup will want to take you down. While this was very much an experimental Donegal team, Jordanstown too were missing a number of players they will rely upon when the Sigerson Cup comes round.

For Donegal, Peter Witherow, Gary McFadden and Conor McManus were the new faces. Absent from the starting 15 were the likes of Paul Durcan, Karl Lacey, Rory Kavanagh, Mark McHugh, Colm McFadden and Michael Murphy who were unavailable for one reason or another, while two time All Star Kevin Cassidy has been dropped from the squad for co-operating with a journalist in the writing of a book on the 2011 Championship. Sluggish would be the best way to describe Donegal’s first half performance on Sunday. The impressive Chris Clarke opened the scoring for the students in the seventh minute, but the Jordanstown side had dropped three shots short into keeper Peter Boyle’s hands in the opening five minutes too. That was the story of the first half –

Jordanstown causing serious problems for the Donegal defence but failing to make their chances count. Full forward Kieran Hughes in particular caused All-Star full back Neil McGee no end of problems, but other than Clarke, his teammates didn’t much trouble the umpires. For Donegal, Dermot Molloy was the shining light in a dull first half. The Naomh Conaill youngster hits four points from play in the first half alone, although he hit four wides with some wayward shooting from frees. Anthony Thompson, Paddy McGrath and Frank McGlynn did well in defence, while Neil Gallagher mopped up a good bit of ball around the middle. Glenswilly captain Gary McFadden had a busy hour, and did enough to ensure he’ll be looked at again in the coming weeks, but Kilcar’s Cork import Conor McManus struggled to get up to the pace of the game and was subbed at half time. Up front, Stephen Griffin got no change out of UUJ full back Andrew McClean, while Christy Toye also failed to make a telling contribution.

Buncrana’s Ryan Bradley turned in a massive performance, imposing himself on the game and putting in a couple of big hits. He got two important points too, the first coming midway through the first half, was a real peach. Anthony Thompson set off on a surging run and passed off to Bradley who burst through a series of challenges before swinging over an excellent point. That point made it 0-2 apiece midway through the first half before Clarke, midfielder Neil McAdam and centre forward Ciaran Donnelly pointed for the visitors, with the Brick Molloy hitting three on the trot for Donegal to leave the sides tied at 0-5 apiece at the break. The half time introduction of Patrick McBrearty gave added threat to the Donegal forwards, and he pushed Donegal ahead with a brilliant free from near the right sideline five minutes after the restart. He doubled Donegal’s advantage to two points accelerating away from corner back Ryan Pickering in the 50th minute. McBrearty’s only failing is that he is very one-sided and almost entirely left footed. Intercounty defenders will twig this and shepherd him onto his weaker right foot all day long.

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