Donegal 2-17 v 0-11 Monaghan<\/p>\n
Shea Malone was the Donegal hero as they raced to a 12-point win over Monaghan in the Dr McKenna Cup final in Omagh.<\/p>\n
Twenty-year-old Malone was left to round off a fluent move on seven minutes to put Donegal 1-0 to 0-1 up. It began with Kieran Gallagher\u2019s fetch in the middle of the field and saw Shane O\u2019Donnell and Paul O\u2019Hare scamper forward to work the opening.<\/p>\n
Then, six minutes from time, with Donegal 1-13 to 0-9 to the good, Malone took on a Peadar Mogan pass and rifled past Monaghan\u2019s substitute goalkeeper Kian Mulligan.<\/p>\n
Jim McGuinness has introduced 10 new faces in the last fortnight and, as well as Malone\u2019s 2-1, Turlough Carr, Kevin Muldoon, Eoin McGeehin, Caolan McColgan, Conor McCahill all scored.<\/p>\n
Goalkeeper Gavin Mulreany hit two-pointed frees over either side of the break, at which time Donegal were 1-7 to 0-6 in front. Gabriel Bannigan\u2019s Monaghan usually have their own netminder, Rory Beggan, to keep the orange flags going, although was absent following Scotstown\u2019s run to the All-Ireland Club semi-finals.<\/p>\n
Donegal open Division 1 at Croke Park against Ger Brennan\u2019s Dublin on Saturday, with Monaghan, last year\u2019s Division 2 winners, welcoming Armagh on Sunday. Mulreany\u2019s save from Thomas Hughes in the 15th minute was important when Donegal were four up, although Monaghan showed enough last season \u2013 giving Donegal a considerable scare at Croke Park in the All-Ireland quarter-finals \u2013 to have a footprint in 2026.<\/p>\n
After Donegal and Malone\u2019s first goal, the tone for the contest was set, with an arm\u2019s length advantage for the most part. They kicked on late in the game with runners all over the place.<\/p>\n
Monaghan made slight inroads before and after and half-time, with Hughes, Stephen Mooney and Andrew Woods on the mark, although in part two, they were never closer than five points. Donegal\u2019s experience infused their youth with Jason McGee\u2019s belter for two and Ryan McHugh finishing it out.<\/p>\n
Donegal scorers: Shea Malone 2-1; Gavin Mulreany 0-4, 2tpf; Hugh McFadden and Conor O\u2019Donnell 0-2;Jason McGee 0-2, tp; Turlough Carr, Kevin Muldoon, Eoin McGeehin, Caolan McColgan, Conor McCahill 0-1 each.<\/p>\n
Monaghan scorers: Stephen Mooney 0-2, 1f; Thomas Hughes 0-2; Andrew Woods 0-1, 1f; Ryan Duffy, Jason Irwin, David Garland, Louis Kelly, Eddie Walsh 0-1; Kian Mulligan 0-1, 45.<\/p>\n
Donegal: Gavin Mulreany; Ultan Doherty, Brendan McCole, Mark Curran; Paul O\u2019Hare, Caolan McGonagle, Max Campbell; Kieran Gallagher, Hugh McFadden; Shane O\u2019Donnell, Turlough Carr, Kevin Muldoon; Conor O\u2019Donnell, Conor McCahill, Shea Malone.<\/p>\n
Subs: Caolan McColgan for McCole (21), Finnbarr Roarty, Eoghan Ban Gallagher and Ryan McHugh for O\u2019Hare, U Doherty and T Carr (half-time), Peadar Mogan for McGonagle (41), Jason McGee and Domhnall Mac Giolla Bhr\u00edde for McFadden and Gallagher (44), Eoin McGeehin for C O\u2019Donnell (46), Sean\u00e1n Carr for S O\u2019Donnell (48), Oisin Caulfield for Muldoon (50).<\/p>\n
Monaghan: Jack Kiernan; Ryan Wylie, Darragh Treanor, Dylan Byrne; Ryan Duffy, Shane Hanratty, Thomas Hughes; Alistair Stewart, Karl Gallagher; Jason Irwin, Liam McDonald, Fionan Carolan; David Garland, Andrew Woods, Stephen Mooney.<\/p>\n
Subs: Darragh McElearney, for Shane Hanratty (21), Kian Mulligan Dessie Ward Stephen O\u2019Hanlon and Miche\u00e1l Bannigan for Kiernan, Irwin, Mooney, and Gallagher (half-time), Louis Kelly, Aaron Kearney and Oisin Monahan for McDonald, Duffy and Stewart (44), Eddie Walsh for Woods (47), Cameron Dowd for Dylan Byrne (50), Sean Callan for Carolan (56).<\/p>\n
Referee: Shane Murphy (Armagh).<\/p>\n
Donegal dominate to win McKenna Cup Final was last modified: January 17th, 2026 by Contributor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donegal 2-17 v 0-11 Monaghan Shea Malone was the Donegal hero as they raced to a 12-point win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-250698","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\/250698","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=250698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}