Cork 2-7 Donegal 1-12

[aodhruadh]

Great start to the league from Donegal.

Anyone got a report ?

I'm not surprised after I saw the team sheet last week - it was a very strong Donegal team on paper and with the likes of M Hegarty and A Sweeney on the bench they look like they could have a good year.

[Armagh4SamAgain]

good result all rite. 

[aodhruadh]

I believe Cork had J Masters and N Murphy sent off in the second half.   Sounds like a hum dinger.

[never kickt a ball]

Great start to the league from Donegal.
Anyone got a report ?
I'm not surprised after I saw the team sheet last week - it was a very strong Donegal team on paper and with the likes of M Hegarty and A Sweeney on the bench they look like they could have a good year.

Donegal take advantage, take points
Saturday, February 3

ALLIANZ NFL DIVISION 1A:

Donegal 1-12 Cork 2-7
The dismissals of two key figures for Cork proved to be the death of the Rebels' ambition to start their Allianz NFL Division 1A campaign with a win on Saturday night.
James Masters and Nicholas Murphy had been instrumental in Cork's impressive start to the contest, with their loss to two yellow cards and a straight red respectively in the second half effectively clipped Cork's claws.
Having led Donegal 2-1 to 0-3 by the half-way mark of the opening half, it looked as though Billy Morgan's side would steam ahead towards both league points.
Masters set Kevin O'Sullivan up for the first goal after just five minutes as Cork moved quickly into a 1-1 to no score lead.
While Donegal slowly got their challenge off the ground, eventually narrowing the gap 1-1 to 0-3, a second goal from Donncha O'Connor, following a defensive error, seemed to suggest one-way traffic.
However, a goal from Kevin McMenamin before half time ensured a tight contest in the second half with just a point dividing the sides, 2-4 to 1-6.
Cork had only managed to add two more points to their tally by the time Masters and Murphy were sent off, but Donegal had five more points on the board.
As the game neared full time, Brendan Devenney was sent off too, but Donegal were already holding firm, and Colm McFadden's injury-time score was the nail in the coffin.

http://www.gaa.ie/plugins/newsfeed.cgi?rm=content&plugin_data_id=17506

[J70]

An unexpected two points and a great start to the league. Maybe we can avoid the drop this time around! How long will Devenney be out for?

[thejohnharanexperi]

Yeah,a great two points to come away from Pairc Ui Rinn with as Cork will definetly take points at home.It was great to see the hardcore support travelling once again in numbers and outshouting the rebels. The team and management appreciated this and gave a round of applause to all in the main stand at the end.As ever the home crowd were knowlegeable and very gracious in defeat.Larry Tompkins concede that we deserved our victory and commented on the fact that some of the Cork players were too easily pushed around in the pysical stakes.Yet again we had to endure an abysmal ref Syl Doyle from Wexford.Within the first 30 seconds you could see that he was going to be busy in stopping the game to scribble in his notebook.Devenney's two yellows were borne of frustration in that the ref repeatedly failed to pull the Cork defence for blatant pushes.Murphy was brewing for trouble throughout the match and deservedly walked whilst Masters was given a straight red for an off the ball dig.In fact Masters had been playing well and their full forward O Connor displayed some great fielding giving Neil Mc Gee trouble.
The positives for us were yet another MOTM display by Cass, Wappa's 1-2 and the lack of panic during the first 20 minutes when we conceded two woeful goals.
The main negatives were the very slow ball into the FF line and failure to close out the game with the two man numerical advantage.
The pitch was in good shape although the dew on the surface made handling tricky. It is imperative that we build on this by beating Mayo next week and looking at maximum points from our last two games against Limerick and Fermanagh should secure at least fourth spot- anything over and above that will be a bonus. Puzzled as to why Sweeney and Bradley were not introduced in last 10 minutes as bench was'nt emptied.

Paul Durcan 5.5 An absolute mare for the big man.Fumbled a high ball in that led to second goal and kick outs poor.Lucky really not to be replaced by Sharkey for second half.Can look back and say that he will never play as bad again.

Thomas Donoghue 7.0 Had his hands full playing against Cork's best line.Moved out to the wing in switch with Eamon Mc Gee and looked more at ease.

Neil Mc Gee 7.0 Marking Cork's best player IMO and did well to curtail him.

Karl Lacey 7.5 Captain for the night and had superb battle with Masters.Only took a short time to get up to match pace and made numerous forays down the line in second half.

Eamon Mc Gee 7.0 Relatively quiet performance but curtailed the threat of O Sullivan when switched to the corner.

Barry Monaghan 6.5 Pulled out of position and ended up marking space for long periods of the first half as the Cork centre half roamed.Still cannot release the ball into the FF line from frees in the half back line.

Barry Dunnion 6.5 As with all the half backs not unduly troubled by O Brien and found himself in scoring positions on acouple of occasions only to lay off to someone in a worse position. Have a go Barry.

Kevin Cassidy 8.0 Rattled big Murphy and stood up to his stupid antics.Drove on and encouraged his teammates especially after the early set backs.Picked up a knock at the end and hopefully is OK.

Rory Kavanagh 7.0 I dont think Rory is enjoying football at the moment as his verve and stamina from last year are not showing.Battled on and did compete in fielding but distribution was poor.In fact there was an abject dearth of long low quick ball into our FF line.

Brian Roper 7.5 Our most effective forward from open play and kicked two fine points with the outside of the boot.Got a great round of applause when subbed late on.

Ciaran Bonner 6.5 A less vibrant and energetic display on Saturday night and may have been feeling the shoulder knock from the Armagh game.

Christy Toye 7.0 Cannot fault the effort but still being dragged away from the 40 into a packed midfield area.

Kevin Mc Menamin 7.5 Took goal chance well after defensive c**k up by Cork and kicked two good frees.In every game has shown that will always win ball pl;ayed in low and fast to him but jury still out on his ability to turn and go past his marker.

Brendan Devenney 7.0 In fairness not given any sort of quality ball and when in possession had the beating of his man for pace.

Michael Doherty 5.5 Never got into match and i think may have touched the ball twice before being subbed at half time.Still should start for Mayo match for frees alone.

Subs:
Colm Anthony 6.5 Ring rusty after long lay off from inter county action but lobbed over point that sealed victory.

Peter Witherow 6.5 Came on for injured Neil Mc Gee and did well.

Michael Hegarty 6.5 No significant impact but should be the creator of openings by harnessing his passing ability like he showed against Down.

Neil Gallagher Season appearance and not on long enough to rate.

We can take Mayo and owe them from the narrow defeat suffered in Ballina a couple of years ago.