Donegal 1-13
Cork 0-17
Donegal suffered a narrow one-point defeat to Cork in Round 2A of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship at MacCumhaill Park on Saturday afternoon.
The home side led this match by five points at the interval but John Cleary’s men rallied back after the restart to seal the win.
Donegal got the afternoon’s scoring underway , with Ryan McHugh finding the target after two minutes of play.
Dara Sheedy got the visitors off the mark three minutes later but four successive scores through Oisin Gallen (2), Michael Murphy (free) and Shane O’Donnell gave the hosts a four-point lead.
On the quarter hour mark, Cork reduced the arrears to two as Steven Sherlock fired over a fine effort from outside the arc.
However, back-to-back scores courtesy of Gallen and Michael Langan restored Donegal’s four-point cushion.
On 24 minutes, Jim McGuinness’s men found an important score in the form of a major.
Michael Murphy intercepted Daniel O’Mahony on the edge of the arc, raced towards goal before laying it off to Conor O’Donnell who palmed the ball home.
The Rebels responded well to the setback and kicked the final score of Act One through a Sherlock two-pointed free to trail by five at the break.
Half-time: Donegal 1-7-0-5 Cork
Michael Murphy and Sean McDonnell exchanged points in the early stages of the second stanza before two successive scores through Langan and Gallen stretched Donegal’s lead to seven.
John Cleary’s charges managed to cut the deficit to four by finding the next three points of the contest, with Conor Corbett and Sherlock (two-pointed free) finding the target.
Peadar Mogan soon got forward from defence and slotted the ball over the bar.
However, the Rebels hit back with two scores in-a-row through Sherlock (45′) and Ian Maguire to leave three between the sides as we entered the closing 15 minutes.
Cork soon hit the front for the first time in the match, with Luke Fahy and Sean Walsh both seeing the orange flag raised for their attempts.
But Donegal hit back immediately as Jason McGee kicked his first point of the afternoon to level proceedings.
With five minutes left on the clock, the away outfit regained the advantage as Sherlock struck over a superb placed ball from outside the arc.
Donegal pulled a point back in the closing stages through Turlough Carr. However, the hooter soon sounded at MacCumhaill Park, sealing a narrow victory for the Rebels.