{"id":250125,"date":"2026-01-17T21:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T21:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/250125\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T21:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T21:02:08","slug":"donegal-ease-past-monaghan-to-win-dr-mckenna-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/250125\/","title":{"rendered":"Donegal ease past Monaghan to win Dr McKenna Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donegal 2-17 Monaghan 0-11<\/p>\n

Donegal wrapped up a solid pre-season with a first Dr McKenna Cup triumph since 2019, eclipsing Monaghan by 12 points in the final at O’Neills Healy Park in Omagh.<\/p>\n

Manager Jim McGuinness has strengthened the depth of his squad with a number of new additions, but still managed to field 11 men who played in last year\u2019s All-Ireland final for this title decider.<\/p>\n

And with a Division 1 opener against Dublin next Saturday, the Ulster men look well prepared for the trip to Croke Park.<\/p>\n

Many of the new recruits put their hands up for inclusion, with dashing attacker Shea Malone staking a strong claim with two goals.<\/p>\n

Donegal got off to a flying start with a goal after just six minutes, Shane O\u2019Donnell sparking the move that ended with Max Campbell crossing for newcomer Shea Malone crashing the ball to the net from close range.<\/p>\n

Hugh McFadden and Turlough Carr fired over points in response to Monaghan scores from Stephen Mooney and Ryan Duffy, but the Farney men failed to capitalise on a number of opportunities from decent positions while pressing forward with conviction.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell was a constant source of energy, heavily involved in the move that led to Conor O\u2019Donnell\u2019s finish which had McGuinness\u2019s side ahead by 1-03 to 0-02 at the end of the opening quarter, that position fortified by the hard work around the middle from Kieran Gallagher and veteran McFadden.<\/p>\n

Monaghan\u2019s wastefulness continued as they crafted a goal chance, Ryan Duffy breaking tackles to slip a pass to Thomas Hughes, whose fisted effort was brilliantly saved by Gavin Mulreany.<\/p>\n

Working the ball through the hands with their traditional running game, the Tir Chonail men stretched the lead through McFadden, and came close to adding a second goal when Conor O\u2019Donnell\u2019s searching delivery picked out Paul O\u2019Hare, but his fisted effort clipped the wrong side of a post.<\/p>\n

Monaghan finally got some fluency back into their game, hitting three points on the spin, the best of them from Mooney, but Donegal finished strongly as goalkeeper Mulreany converted a two-point free to send them in with a 1-07 to 0-06 interval lead.<\/p>\n

\"Shea
\nShea Malone scores Donegal’s first goal at O’Neills Healy Park<\/p>\n

Mulreany was at it again early in the second half, raising another orange flag, and a raft of changes, including several household names, fortified Donegal\u2019s push for the finish line.<\/p>\n

Jason McGee, Ryan McHugh and Eoghan Ban Gallagher all made a significant impact off the bench as last year\u2019s beaten All-Ireland finalists took control.<\/p>\n

They ran at a hard-pressed Monaghan defence from all angles, piling on scores through Conor O\u2019Donnell, Malone, Eoin McGeehan and Caolan McColgan.<\/p>\n

Points from Andrew Woods and Eddie Walsh were merely of token value to Monaghan, such was the gulf in energy and impetus between the sides.<\/p>\n

And when Malone smashed the ball to the roof of the net from Peadar Mogan\u2019s assist for his second goal on 53 minutes, it was all over.<\/p>\n

Jason McGee powered over a two-pointer to emphasise his side\u2019s dominance, as they finished off with another flourish of scores.<\/p>\n

Donegal: G Mulreany (0-04, 2 tpf); U Doherty, B McCole, M Curran; P O\u2019Hare, C McGonagle, M Campbell; K Gallagher, H McFadden (0-02); S O\u2019Donnell, T Carr (0-01), K Muldoon (0-01); C O\u2019Donnell (0-02), C McCahill (0-01), S Malone (2-01).<\/p>\n

Subs: C McColgan (0-01) for McCole (20), R McHugh (0-01) for Carr (h-t), E Ban Gallagher for Doherty (h-t), F Roarty for O\u2019Hare (h-t), P Mogan for McGonagle (41), J McGee (0-02, tp) for K Gallagher (43), D MacGiolla Bhride for McFadden (43), E McGeehan (0-01) for C O\u2019Donnell (45), S Carr for S O\u2019Donnell (47), O Caulfield for Muldoon (48).<\/p>\n

Monaghan: J Kiernan; R Wylie, C Dowd, D Treanor, D Byrne; R Duffy (0-01), S Hanratty, T Hughes (0-02); A Stewart, K Gallagher; J Irwin (0-01), L McDonald, F Carolan; D Garland (0-01), A Woods (0-02, 1f), S Mooney (0-02, 1f).<\/p>\n

Subs: D McElearney for Hanratty (21), M Bannigan for Irwin (h-t), D Ward for Rooney (h-t), S O\u2019Hanlon for Gallagher (h-t), K Mulligan (0-01, \u201945) for Kiernan (h-t), E Walsh for Woods (47), S Callan for Carolan (55).<\/p>\n

Referee: S Murphy (Armagh).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donegal 2-17 Monaghan 0-11 Donegal wrapped up a solid pre-season with a first Dr McKenna Cup triumph since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-250125","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}