Photo www.donegaldemocrat.ie

Donegal Senior Football Championship Final
St Eunan’s 0-13 Naomh Conaill 0-7
St Eunan’s captured their third Donegal senior football championship title in as many years thanks to a superior display against Naomh Conaill at Ballybofey. Any hopes of Naomh Conaill causing an upset here were quashed by the defending champions when a sterling second-half performance firmly put their opponents to the sword. Naomh Conaill had been most convincing in the opening stages as they rallied into a 0-4 to 0-1 lead after Dermot Molloy, Leon Thompson and Leo McLoone all landed points. Jim McGuinness was the driving force for the underdogs for many of those singles, but his team failed to register another score for an entire 29 minute after that, which would prove their undoing. Conal Dunne and Brendan Devenney got the Letterkenny side going with points, which eventually see Eunan’s into a 0-5 to 0-4 lead at the break. Dunne continued to send over accurate placed balls after the restart, before Brendan McDyre pulled back a score for Naomh Conaill to cut the deficit to three. Another telling statistic in this one-sided decider was that the winners kicked 13 wides over the hour. Conal Gibbons came off the bench to fire over two quick points for Eunan’s and when county experience of Dunne, Devenney and Rory Kavanagh weighed in more points it was clear that the Dr Maguire Cup was staying in Letterkenny for another 12 months, at least.

St. Eunan’s Manager Eamon O Boyle
 

St. Eunan’s Captain Brendan Devenney
 

Man of the Match St. Eunan’s Ciaran Greene
 

Photo www.donegaldemocrat.ie

FAI Umbro Women’s Intermediate Cup Final

Kilmacrennan Celtic 2-2 Lakewood
(Kilmacrennan won 5-4 on penalties)

FIVE out of five from the penalty spot was enough to deliver Kilmacrennan Celtic the FAI Umbro Women’s Intermediate Cup in an exciting final at Dry Arch Park, Letterkenny today (Sunday). After being twice pegged back by Cork side Lakewood Athletic, the Donegal girls kept their nerve in the penalty shoot-out in which only one of the ten penalties taken was missed. And it was left to skipper Julianne Herrity to slot home the winning kick and send the large band of Kilmacrennan supporters into celebration mode after witnessing a keenly contest final that could have gone either way after 120 minutes of entertaining football.

Kilmacrennan  Manager Trevor Gorman speaking with Oisin Kelly

It is a “fabulous fifth” Irish Tarmac title in the “fabulous Fabia” for Maghera’s Eugene Donnelly, and co-driver Paddy Toner. They have written themselves into the rallying history books, as they clinched their fifth Irish Tarmac Rally Championship, with a second place finish on the Cork 20 International Rally. It’s the first major championship win worldwide for the Skoda Fabia WRC. For Eugene, his fifth Irish Tarmac title equals Austin McHale’s all time record and Eugene’s tally of 19 Irish Tarmac Rally victories is just one below the all time record set by the late Bertie Fisher.

Eugene Donnelly speaking with Oisin Kelly