Donegal held to a draw by Dublin


Final Score: 2-05- 1-08
Donegal took a storming lead through a fantastic point from Jason Magee with just thirty seconds played- Shane Carthy responded with a well worked point after a good ball from Philly McMahon.
The game was slightly hindered by the conditions in Ballybofey and we didn’t see another point for 12 minutes which came from a Dean Rock free.
While Donegal’s defence was effective, the forward line were wasteful at times missing out on handling and dropping some balls short.
This was punished by Dublin who increased their lead with Kieran Kilkenny, Conor McHugh and Niall Scully all getting on the score-sheet.
Ciaran Thompson registered his first point of the game to pull the game back to three points- a deficit which could have been more had it not been for poor shooting from the Dublin forwards who had four wides already.
With minute’s to go in the first half Donegal needed a big response and it came in the form of two goals in quick succession.
Jason Magee got the first through a very scrappy effort when a free kick was played inside, he first miss-handled, then hit the post and was fortunate to get a third effort at it which he placed in the net.
From the kick-out, Donegal got on the ball and broke at the Dublin defence and Ryan McHugh was at hand to finish the ball past Stephan Cluxton and into the net.
Dean Rock had an opportunity to pull a point back from 35 yards but he sent it wide to the left and the sides went into halftime with the score at 2-2 – 0-05
Donegal opened the scoring in the second half when Michael Murphy won a free outside of the 35 yard line and he placed the ball over the bar.
It took Dublin eight minutes to get into the games when Dean Rock converted two frees in quick succession to pull the game back to two points.
They then took the lead when they Niall Scully found a gap in the Donegal defence- the ball was played into him and he finished well past Mark Anthony McGinley to send the Dubs ahead by one point.
David Byrne doubled the lead and it looked like Dublin were on their way to another victory.
But, Ciaran Thompson narrowed the lead with five minutes to go and Michael Murphy leveled it from a free minutes later.
Donegal pushed for the win in injury time but had to settle for a draw in the end.
Dublin remain unbeaten but a huge point for Donegal.

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