IN THE ARCHIVES: Donegal-Tyrone tempers flare, Armagh revenge, and Derry clinch third league title

10 YEARS AGO

FOR the fourth time in five seasons, Tyrone found themselves stumped by Donegal in the Ulster Championship, losing a preliminary round encounter by 1-13 to 1-10.

Donegal came roaring out of the blocks, scoring 0-6 in the first 14 minutes and 0-3 in the final quarter, periods which yielded just a single goal for Tyrone.

This was a hot and heavy rivalry at the time with no love lost between the two teams and there were a number of flashpoints, prompting referee Joe McQuillan to hand out 11 yellow cards on the day, seven for Donegal and four for Tyrone.

Speaking at a press gig later in the week, former Tyrone star Sean Cavanagh says that players on both teams “probably did overstep the mark to a certain degree” in relation to sledging, claiming that “everyone was probably a bit on the edge I think.”

Mickey Harte’s side dusted themselves down in the qualifiers and ended up in an All-Ireland semi-final, where they gave a good account of themselves against Kerry, while Donegal lost the Ulster final to Monaghan and bowed out of the race for Sam at the quarter-final stage, losing by 2-13 to 0-11 to Mayo.

Elsewhere, there were wins for Galway, Westmeath, Offaly and Laois, while Cork ladies claimed their ninth league crown in 11 seasons with a Division One final replay victory over Galway, edging matters by a single point.

20 YEARS AGO

FERMANAGH claimed a historic All-Ireland quarter-final victory over Armagh in the summer of 2004 but there was to be no repeat result when they met in the 2005 Ulster Championship preliminary round in front of almost 25,000 supporters.

The Orchard County deserved their 2-12 to 1-7 victory with Aaron Kernan enjoying a really accomplished debut, though it was by no means a complete display and they racked up 22 wides on the day.

Fermanagh simply couldn’t get their hands on enough ball to threaten the reigning champions and Armagh marched on to a third Ulster title on the trot, though their All-Ireland dreams came to an end in a seismic semi-final clash against their big rivals Tyrone.

Elsewhere, the Dubs had a cakewalk in Leinster against Longford, while a point by midfielder Paul O’Grady earned Limerick a replay in an entertaining Munster Hurling Championship match against Tipperary.

One of the big talking points of the weekends arguably that of Wicklow, who came close to pulling off a massive shock against a Kildare side they outclassed for large stretches of the game. 7/1 underdogs before the game, the Garden County were pipped by at the post on a scoreline of 1-17 to 2-12.

30 YEARS AGO

DERRY’S physical power served them well as they clinched a third National Football League title with a 0-12 to 0-8 victory over Donegal at Croke Park.

Described as a ‘bruising, rip-roaring contest’ in a match report at the time, neither team emerged unscathed as Tony Boyle and Joe Brolly were both withdrawn in a busy afternoon for the first aid personnel.

Derry’s star man was their midfield colossus Anthony Tohill but their defence also excelled, in particular Kieran McKeever, Gary Coleman, Henry Downey and Fergal McCusker.

The Oak Leafers opened up a 0-6 to 0-4 lead at the break, while the second-half was interrupted on a number of occasions by flashpoints of one description or another.

On the whole, Donegal were over-elaborate in attack and eight points wasn’t a great return for their efforts, so they could have no complaints about the final outcome. Having said that, the loss of Tony Boyle was a bodyblow and John Joe Doherty said after the game that they ‘seemed to lose their shape and gave away a lot of frees’ after his withdrawal.