Down pulled off one of the shocks of the championship with a superb display to defeat Donegal in the quarter-final in O’Donnell Park, Letterkenny.<\/p>\n
Without their joint captain Michael Langan, Donegal looked at threat from an early stage and Down were sharp in everything they did.<\/p>\n
And even when Donegal got back on terms midway through the second half at 1-15 each, Down pulled away again and two Miceal Rooney goals killed off any hope of Donegal retaining their Ulster title.<\/p>\n
Odhran Murdock, Daniel Guinness, Miceal Rooney, Ceilum Doherty and Adam Crimmons were outstanding for the winners.<\/p>\n
Michael Murphy had the opening score with a two-point free on six minutes but despite having the bulk of the possession, Donegal could not make it count on the scoreboard, hitting seving first half wides.<\/p>\n
Down were in front on 16 minutes through Odhran Murdoch, Pat Havern and Daniel Guinness points. Oisin Gallen got Donegal level but by the 25th minute Down were 0-08 to 0-04 ahead with Haven, Adam Crimmons and Guinness again on target.<\/p>\n
The game came to life in the final 10 minutes when Donegal got a fortunate break from a Conor O’Donnell effort for a point which dropped short.<\/p>\n
The ricochet came to Caolan McGonagle to fire to the net.<\/p>\n
The visitors went down the field and Gavin Mulreany made a magnificent save from Miceal Rooney and it was Donegal’s turn to go on the attack again.<\/p>\n
Peadar Mogan found Michael Murphy who sent Ciaran Moore through one on one with Ronan Burns but he put his effort over the crossbar.<\/p>\n
Donegal went ahead through Oisin Gallen and Conor O’Donnell but Down hit back with Adam Crimmons levelling and Caolan Mooney firing over as the hooter sounded.<\/p>\n
Down were again the sharper side on the restart and a magnificent goal from Daniel Guinness plus a two pointer from Pat Havern had them 1-15 to 1-10 ahead.<\/p>\n
Donegal got the next five to level including a two-pointer from Jason McGee but it only awoke Down once more.<\/p>\n
They got a very debateable point from Odhran Murdock that looked wide from the stands but they pushed on to lead 1-19 to 1-16.<\/p>\n
Donegal could not get back on terms and Rooney added a second goal to put his side five clear.<\/p>\n
Mogan responded with a two-pointer but a second Rooney goal sealed the win for Down.<\/p>\n
DONEGAL: Gavin Mulreaney; Caolan McColgan, Brendan McCole, Eoghan B\u00e1n Gallagher; Ryan McHugh, Caolan McGonagle (1-00), Finnbarr Roarty; Jason McGee (0-02,tp), Hugh McFadden; Shane O’Donnell, Ciaran Moore, Peadar Mogan (0-02,tp); Conor O\u2019Donnell (0-03), Michael Murphy (0-07,1tp,4f), Oisin Gallen (0-05).<\/p>\n
Subs: Daire \u00d3 Baoill for Moore (40), Max Campbell for McHugh (47), Mark Curran for Gallagher (59), Shea Malone (0-2,tp) for Gallen (60)<\/p>\n
DOWN: Ronan Burns; Peter Fegan, Pierce Laverty, Callum Rogers; Caolan Mooney (0-01), Shane Annett, Daniel Guinness (1-03); Odhran Murdrock (0-03), Ryan McEvoy (0-02,tp); Miceal Rooney (2-00), Ceilum Doherty (0-01), John McGeough; Adam Crimmins (0-04), Pat Havern (0-07,1tp,4f), Pearse McPolin<\/p>\n
Subs: Liam Kerr for McGeough (45), Finn McElroy for Fegan (49), Jamie Doran for Mooney (57), Ryan Magill for McPolin (60), Ruairi McCormick for C Rogers (66)<\/p>\n
Referee: Paddy Neilan (Roscommon).<\/p>\n
Watch highlights on The Sunday Game from 9.30pm on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Down pulled off one of the shocks of the championship with a superb display to defeat Donegal in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-418721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418721","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=418721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}