Donegal win Extra Time thriller

GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Quarter-Final:
Donegal 1-12 Kildare 0-14 (AET)

Donegal are through to the semi-finals of the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship after beating Kildare in extra-time at Croke Park on Saturday night.

Kevin Cassidy kicked the winning point two minutes into added time at the end of a marathon game after Donegal had come back from three points down in the first period of extra-time.

Donegal scored the final four points of the game to record a remarkable victory which sets up a semi-final meeting with Tyrone or Dublin.

Trailing by 0-14 to 1-8 with eight minutes remaining, Michael Murphy, who had been brought on as a first half sub and was clearly struggling with a hamstring injury, scored two crucial points before Christy Toye levelled the game in added time and Cassidy then scored a wonderful winner with what was effectively the last kick of the game.

“We have always been coached and we always had it going through our minds that you keep going until the final whistle,” said Murphy, the Donegal captain afterwards. “When they were three down midway through the second period (of extra-time) it would have been very easy to lie down and go through the paces.

“But we knew that there were scores in the team. We felt we were keeping Kildare out relatively well and it was just a matter of trying to construct a few attacks and we managed to get over a few scores. We are delighted that the scores managed to go over.”

Donegal looked dead and buried when Kildare had come back to level the game at the end of normal time to force extra-time and then pushed on to land the first three points in extra-time.

However, Jim McGuinness has completely recalibrated the mindset of these Donegal players and they showed remarkable mental – not to mention physical – strength to come back and stage a never-to-be-forgotten comeback at the death.

Donegal will feel that they should have won the game in normal time after Toye’s goal in the 58th minute – seconds after he had been brought on as a sub – had given them a 1-7 to 0-7 lead going into the closing stages of the game.

However, in keeping with the tone of a dram-filled evening, Kildare forced their way back into the game and scored three late points – the equaliser coming from an Eoghan O’Flaherty free in the 73rd minute – to force extra-time.

When Ronan Sweeney, Gary White and Alan Smith all scored points in the first period of extra-time, Kildare had scored six unanswered points there appeared to be sufficient momentum with the Lilywhites to carry them over the line.

However, Karl Lacey, who was brilliant at centre-back for Donegal, pegged that lead back to two in added time in that first 10-minute period. Although Emmet Bolton put Kildare back into a three-point lead on the resumption of play, that would be their last score as Murphy scored a quickfire brace of points to leave just one between the sides as the game reached an almost unbearable climax.

When Toye, whose introduction proved a masterstroke by Donegal manager Jim McGuinness, wriggled free of a swarm of Kildare defenders in the 91st minute of the game to level matter, a replay seemed the most equitable conclusion.

However, Cassidy was on hand to kick a remarkable winner a minute later, drilling home a sublime point after a well-constructed Donegal move. Donegal had kept their nerve and had defied the critics to move into the last four of the Championship less than two weeks after landing a first Ulster title in 19 years.

Although Donegal captain Murphy took part in the warm-up, the Glenswilly man did not start, a hamstring injury which had flared up during the week ruling him out. David Walsh was the man who came in, while Rory Kavanagh was deemed fit to start in midfield.

It was, as expected, a first half devoid of any real flair, as both sides set their stall out not give an inch away. It led to 35 minutes of largely defensive football in which chances were at a premium.

Donegal scored two points in the first nine minutes, Paddy McBrearty and Kavanagh giving them a 0-2 to 0-1 lead. However, the Kildare full-back line took control for the remainder of the half and Donegal went a full half hour before scoring again, Mark McHugh tapping over four minutes into added time.

In between, Kildare had kicked four successive points, all of which came from their half-forward line. Tomás O’Connor was getting little change from Neil McGee, as was John Doyle, who was struggling in a full-forward line that was getting very little service.

That left Eoghan O’Flaherty, Eamonn Callaghan and Pádraig O’Neill to pick off long-range points as the Donegal defence proved all but impenetrable. Although they did kick four wides in the first half, Kildare had more of the ball and therefore created more scoring opportunities.

At a stage when Doengal were 0-4 to 0-2 down, McHugh did have a great goal chance, but after Walsh had laid off the ball brilliantly to him, the Donegal forward was denied by an instinctive save from Shane Connolly, who stopped a low shot with his feet.

Twenty-seven minutes in, Donegal manager McGuinness made a double substitution; crucially, Murphy replaced McBrearty, while Eamonn McGee was also drafted into the defence to keep tabs on Doyle.

Kildare moved three clear when Donegal goalkeeper Paul Durcan misplaced a kick-out and Callaghan swept up the loose ball to drive over a sweet score with the outside of his boot. When McHugh struck for his first point of the evening in added time, the gap was down to two at the break, 0-5 to 0-2.

Kildare appeared to have made a major breakthrough at the start of the second half when Doyle’s shot came off a post and fell perfectly for Tomás O’Connor to prod it into the net, but the goal was disallowed for square ball.

Then came the Donegal fightback. Murphy kicked the first of three successive Donegal points in the 41st minute, before Ryan Bradley and substitute Dermot Molly followed up as the Ulster champions levelled the game at 0-6 apiece 10 minutes into the second half.

Alan Smith and Kevin Cassidy traded scores before Donegal struck for what appeared to be the killer blow in the 58th minute. Toye, on the field for McFadden a matter of seconds with clear instructions to cause a nuisance of himself in the full-forward, did just that when he took a pass from Frank McGlynn and sent a low shot past Connolly.

Kildare had no choice but to throw off the shackles and go in search of scores. Eoghan O’Flaherty kicked things off with a free and then Kavanagh scored with a stunning effort from under the Cusack Stand. Bolton looked to have spurned the chance to draw the game when he hit tamely wide, but Eoghan O’Flaherty made no mistake when presented with a straightforward free three minutes into added time.

Kildare carried that momentum into extra-time. Sweeney put them ahead five minutes into the first period of added time before White (free) and Smith gave them a three-point cushion.

The dream appeared to be over fro Donegal for another year, but they dug deep and, remarkably, scored four of the last five points of the game to secure a famous win.

Donegal scorers: C Toye 1-01, M Murphy 0-03 (0-1f), K Cassidy 0-02, K Lacey, R Kavanagh, M McHugh, R Bradley, P McBrearty, D Molloy 0-1 each.

Kildare scorers: E O’Flaherty 0-06 (4f), A Smith 0-02, E Bolton, P O’Neill, E Callaghan, J Kavanagh, G White (0-1f), R Sweeney 0-01 each

Donegal: P Durcan; F McGlynn, N McGee, P McGrath; A Thompson, K Lacey, K Cassidy; R Kavanagh, N Gallagher; M McHugh, M Hegarty, R Bradley; P McBrearty, D Walsh, C McFadden. Subs: E McGee for P McGrath (27), M Murphy for P McBrearty (27), M McElhinney for N Gallagher (HT), D Molloy for M Hegarty (42), C Toye for C McFadden (59), N Gallagher for K Rafferty (81), C McFadden for D Molloy (82), P McBrearty for R Bradley (88).

Kildare: S Connolly; A MacLochiann, M Foley, H McGrillen; B Flanagan, M O’Flaherty, E Bolton; J Doyle, D Flynn; P O’Neill, E O’Flaherty, Eamonn Callaghan; Robert Kelly, Tomas O’Connor, James Kavanagh. Subs: A Smith for T O’Connor (42), O Lyons for McLochlainn (62), R Sweeney B Flanagan (62), M Conway for P O’Neill (64), G White for J Doyle (70), F Dowling for J Kavanagh (75), J Doyle for E O’Flaherty (77), B Flanagan for R Kelly (85).

Referee: David Coldrick (An Mhí)

Attendance: 39, 612