Donegal crash to another league defeat

Lidl NFL Division 1

Dublin 2-13 Donegal 0-6

DONEGAL remain pointless after Hannah Tyrrell hit 1-3 as Dublin dominated from the first whistle and laid the foundations for victory on Friday in Letterkenny.

Dublin scored 1-11 without reply before the break to ensure their hosts remain bottom of the table, still without a win, and will be relegated to Division Two if Mayo avoid defeat at home to Galway on Sunday.

Maxi Curran’s young side may have gone into this game in Letterkenny as underdogs, but they would have been hoping to have put up a better challenge in front of their own supporters.

It was Dublin who hit the ground running with early scores from Jennifer Dunne, Kate Sullivan and Hannah Tyrrell, to go 0-3 to 0-0 ahead within eight minutes.

Tyrrell would go on to score 1-3 in a first half where the visitors were clinical in front of goal. Her goal came from a penalty on 24 minutes after Caoimhe Keon was adjudged to have fouled the ball on the line.

Dunne and Eilish O’Dowd were well on top in the midfield sector and whenever Donegal did manage to work the ball forward, they found it almost impossible to break down a well organised defence.

By half-time, Donegal trailed by 1-11 to 0-0 and they would also start the second half with only 14 players after midfielder Shelly Twohig was shown a yellow card just before the interval.

Last year’s Player of the Year Niamh McLaughlin made a welcome return from injury, coming on as a half-time substitute for Donegal, and she gave the home side a notable lift.

They scored their first point of the day when Katy Herron converted a close-in free seven minutes after the restart. It set the tone for a much improved display from the home side.

Dublin weren’t helped by the loss of Jessica Tobin and then Ellen Gribben to yellow cards in quick succession.

However, even though it was a much more even contest in the second half, Dublin had done enough to ease to an impressive win and a late penalty from Orlagh Nolan rounded off a comfortable victory.

Scorers

Dublin: H Tyrrell 1-3 (2f), O Nolan 1-1, K Sullivan 0-3 (1f), C O’Connor 0-2, N Hetherton 0-2 (1f), J Dunne, J Egan 0-1 each

Donegal: K Herron 0-3 (3f), C McGarvey 0-1 (f), S White 0-1, Niamh McLaughlin 0-1 (f).

DUBLIN: A Shiels; N Crowley, L Caffery, J Tobin; L Magee, D Lawless, M Byrne; J Dunne, E O’Dowd; C O’Connor, O Nolan, E Gribben; K Sullivan, N Hetherton, H Tyrrell.
Subs: A Timothy for O’Connor (ht), A Kane for O’Dowd (34), C Darby for Lawless (45), J Egan for Tyrrell (45), C Coffey for Hetherton (54), O Martin for Gribben (59), N Donlon for Tobin (59), S Wylde for Sullivan (60), E Deeley for Magee (60), R Brennan for Byrne (60).

DONEGAL: A McColgan; S McFeely, E McGinley, E Gallagher; R Rodgers, Nicole McLaughlin, T Hegarty; S Twohig, C Keon; N Carr, K Long, K Dowds; S McGroddy, K Herron, A Temple Asoko.
Subs: C McGarvey for McFeely (24), S Boyle for Keon (ht), Niamh McLaughlin for Temple Asoko (ht), S White for Carr (46), J McFadden for Long (46), C Walsh for McGroddy (54), K O’Donnell for McGinley (59)

Ref: Anthony Morran (Monaghan).