Kerry 0-16
Donegal 2-20
Donegal got their All-Ireland Football Championship campaign off to a great start on Saturday afternoon, sealing a ten-point win over Kerry at Fitzgerald Stadium.
Donegal got off to a flying start in this encounter, with Ciaran Moore landing major after two minutes of play at the Kerry venue.
This was shortly followed by an Oisin Gallen two-pointer before Michael Burns got the hosts off the mark.
Ryan McHugh hit back with a fine effort from outside the arc for the visitors but Jack O’Connor’s men kicked three successive scores through David Clifford (free), Paudie Clifford and Graham O’Sullivan to close the gap to two.
The contest’s next four scores were shared between the sides, with Gallen and Moore pointing for the away outfit while Tadhg Morley and Dylan Geaney found the target for Kerry.
Geaney soon found the target again to leave a point between the sides after 23 minutes of play.
However, four points without reply courtesy of Michael Langan (two-pointer), Max Campbell and Gallen pushed Donegal’s lead back to five.
Geaney and Langan exchanged scores in the closing stages of Act One to leave Donegal with a five-point cushion at the break.
Half-time: Donegal 1-11-0-9
The Kingdom were reduced to 14 men for the second stanza, with Michael Burns being shown a red card for an incident with Ryan McHugh at the end of the first half.
Jim McGuinness’s men extended their lead to eight points after the restart as Peadar Mogan, Gallen and Langan found the target with good efforts.
It took the home outfit 15 minutes to source their first score of Act Two when Dylan Geaney saw the orange flag raised for his attempt to reduce the arrears to six.
However, Donegal responded with four points of their own courtesy of Shane O’Donnell, Michael Murphy, Langan and Mogan to stretch their advantage with ten minutes to go.
Cilliant Trant and Shea Malone swapped scores before the Naomh Conaill clubman found the back of the net to push Donegal’s lead to 13 points.
On 67 minutes, David Clifford got his first score of the second stanza as he fired over a two-pointed effort to cut the deficit to 11.
Donegal’s Jason McGee and Kerry’s Tony Brosnan (two-pointer) both found the target in the closing stages before the hooter sounded to seal a fine victory for Jim McGuinness’s charges.