Luke Barrett’s Donegal Minors began their Ulster Minor Football Championship campaign with a good win over Fermanagh.
Donegal 0-15 Fermanagh 1-7
It was a first game of the competition for Donegal, who play four games in the group of five, with the top four qualifying for the quarter-finals.
Fermanagh lost their opening game by 3-12 to 0-5 against Monaghan at Brewster Park and Donegal beat Fermanagh 3-14 to 0-2 in the league on their way to winning the Jim McGuigan Cup, so a win would have been expected.
But Fermanagh gave them a good game and were never out of the contest, with three points separating the teams coming into added time.
Donegal however were wasteful, but Shane Callaghan hit six points and Gavin Doherty got three in the first half, while Luke Clerkin scored three from half back, with Mattie McDermott impressing for Fermanagh.
And the home side got off the mark after 30 seconds as Oisin Scanlon won the throw-in and the ball was worked up to Shane Callaghan fired over with his left foot from 20 metres.
Fermanagh were quickly level when Mattie McDemott rifled over a close range free but Donegal began to open a gap.
Conor McCahill scored the first of three Donegal points in as many minutes after being fed the ball by Shane Callaghan and quickly turning and shooting before a defender in green could get near.
Luke Clerkin, who was enjoying getting forward, found space down the right and fired over from a narrow angle with his right foot, while Gavin Doherty opened his account from the opposite side, coming in on his right.
Luke McAnespy ended a great move from the visitors with a point and Niall McElroy’s men found themselves two points down after a quarter of an hour.
But Donegal quickly hit four points in a row and were prolific with their attempts, having dropped three short before this spell.
Doherty hit two in a row from 25 metres, the first directly over the black spot and a minute later he got a half a yard of space as the defenders tried to close McCahill down, but McCahill found the Killybegs man to fire over.
Clerkin again got space down the right after a 1-2 with John James Sweeney and fired over from an even tighter angle this time, and Sweeney would again turn provider for Callaghan who burst forward to fire between the posts and give Luke Barrett’s men a six point lead.
McCahill could have extended that lead minutes later as Clerkin tried to find a teammate and the ball dropped in the square, but his strike along the ground went wide.
And it was at the other end that we would see the green flag raised for the first time out of nowhere as a long ball came in to Dara Cathcart and the Kinawley man turned outside on his right foot with Padraig Mac Giolla Bhríde coming out to close him down, but Cathcart squeezed the ball past him and into the net.
Fermanagh ended the scoring for the half through a brilliant score from McDermott, cutting in on his right foot and firing over from near on 40 metres.
A nervy lead for the hosts as Fermanagh brought it back to 0-8 to 1-3 at the break.
Donegal came out flying again as Clerkin got his third in a similar vein, but this time he got much closer in to fist over, while Callaghan scored his first free with a left footed strike from the right.
A carbon copy of his previous free saw Callaghan get his fourth point of the game, but McDermott pulled one back at the other end with a free from the left.
Mulholland and McDermott then traded frees coming up to the 50th minute mark and a good score from Michael Burns, driving in from the right and powering the ball over the bar made it 0-12 to 1-6 and still plenty to play for.
Donegal wasted possession and Fermanagh worked the ball forward well with Conor Mulligan finding himself in an advanced position to fire over on his left foot, but great work by his opposite number 3 Jordi Gribben saw him drive down the left to lay off Mulholland for his second point of the game.
Another Callaghan free extended the Donegal lead out to 0-14 to 1-7 with two minutes remaining on the clock and looking likely to see it out.
And they did just that as referee Richie Donoghue blew the whistle after two minutes of added time, but not before Callaghan scored one last free.
Donegal win their opening game while Fermanagh are winless in two games.
Donegal: Padraig Mac Giolla Bhride; Donal Gallagher, Jordi Gribben, Callum McCrea, Finbar Roarty, Darragh Hennigan, Luke Clerkin (0-3); Oisin Scanlan, Lorcan McGee; Jack Hegarty, Shane Callaghan (0-6,4f), John James Sweeney, Dylan Mulholland (0-2,1f), Conor McCahill (0-1), Gavin Doherty (0-3).
Subs: Eoin Gallagher for Doherty (49 mins), Jack Gallagher for Clerkin (52 mins), Philip Doherty and Shane Ellison for Mulholland and Hennigan (64 mins)
Fermanagh: Calvin Brown; Matthew Maguire, Conor Mulligan (0-1), Caelan Jones, Luke McAnespy (0-1), Oisin Swift, Lochlann King; Dara Cathcart (1-0), Ben Warnock; Barry Goodwin, Darragh Flanagan, Oisin Donohue, Michael Burns (0-1), Daire Chapman, Mattie McDermott (0-4,3f).
Subs: Dan O’Connor and Kian Prior for Goodwin and Chapman (38 mins), Michael Keenan for Maguire (61 mins)
Referee: Richie Donoghue (Derry)
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