Donegal deliver 26-point drubbing to experimental Derry in McGurk Cup

Donegal 4-25

Derry 1-8

Donegal got their Conor McGurk Cup campaign off the mark with a facile 26-point hammering of Derry at the Convoy Training Centre on Saturday.

The visitors elected to field their U-20 side in the pre-season competition but that decision was a poor one as Donegal completely steamrolled their opponents.

Gerard Gilmore top-scored with 0-7 for Mickey McCann’s charges while  there were also fine individual contributions from the likes of Liam McKinney (0-6) and Conor Gartland (1-3).

In bright January sunshine, Donegal stormed into an early four-point lead as Gartland, Gilmore from a free, Ruairi Campbell and McKinney all hit the target inside the first seven minutes.

However, all that early endevour was more or less wiped out in one fell swoop when Eamon Cassidy cut through the Donegal defence to tee up Conor Murtagh for the goal.

Still, Donegal would notch the next three points thanks to fine individual efforts from Jack O’Loughlin and Brian Macintyre (2) to leave it 0-7 to 1-0 in the hosts’ favour by the 21st minute.

Donegal then increased their lead to five as Gilmore landed another free from out the park. Five minutes out from the break and the same player, from a similar positon, left it 0-9 to 1-0 in his side’s favour.

Things got even better for McCann’s charges as McKinney and Gilmore, this time from a placed ball on the extreme left, landed successive overs.

Derry finally raised their first white flag on 29 minutes through Eamon Cassidy (free) to leave seven in it. But right up the other side Ruairi Campbell found himself in acres of space and the Setanta man made no mistake to rattle the net.

And with Sean McVeigh getting himself on the scoresheet just pior to the short whistle, 11 points split the teams at the midpoint. 

Donegal picked up where they left off on the restart thanks to another Gilmore free. And when a speculative Gartland shot from distance wasn’t dealt with by the Derry reargaurd, the sliotar again ended up in the net.

2-13 to 1-1 ahead, Donegal added further points through Gilmore (2) to leave a massive 17 points in it nearing the three-quarter hour mark.

Cassidy did open the Oak Leafers’ second-half account but Donegal kept the foot on the gas and efforts from Gartland, Campbell, McKinney and Gilmore (free) left it 2-19 to 1-2 with almost 20 minutes still to play.

Eunan Boyle and Aimon Duffin both managed to clear the Donegal crossbar to move Derry to 1-4 but the home onslaught continued through substitutes Cormac Finn and Sean Ward and McIntyre and McKinney (2).

Before the end, McGee Cronolly and Oisin Marley planted further Donegal maximums while Cassidy (2), from a free, brought the curtain down on the visitors’ scoring.

Teams and Scorers

Donegal scorers: Gerard Gilmore 0-7,6f;  Conor Gartland 1-3; Ruairi Campbell 1-2; Liam McKinney 0-6,2f; Josh McGee Cronolly 1-1; Oisin Marley 1-0; Brian MacIntyre 0-3; Jack O’Loughlin 0-1; Sean Ward 0-1; Cormac Finn 0-1.

Derry scorers: Conor Murtagh 1-0; Eamon Cassidy 0-5,4f; Simon Duffin 0-2; Eunan Boylan 0-1.

Donegal: Luke White; Ciaran Curran, Ciaran Bradley, Gavin Browne; Jack O’Laoughlin, Stephen Gillespie, Connor Grady; Brian MacIntyre, Ryan Hilferty; Sean McVeigh, Conor Gartland, Liam McKinney; Peter Kelly, Gerard Gilmore, Ruairi Campbell.

Subs: Josh McGee Cronolly for Hilferty (ht), Oisin Kelly for C Bradley (43); Sean Ward for R Campbell (43); Cormac Finn for Grtland (45); Conor Griffin for O’Loughlin (54); Oisin Marley for Kelly (56); James Monagle for Gilmore (60).

Derry: Aodan McCallion; Jamie Lee McGlade, Darragh Young, Odhran Clenaghan; Andy McBride, Aimon Duffin, Ben Kearney; Ben Kealey, Eunan Boylan; Niall Brolly, Eamon Cassidy, Conan Bradley; James McDaid, Ryan McAdams, Conor Murtagh.

Subs: Ben McCullagh, Padraig Kelly and Shea Walsh for J McDaid, Kealey and Murtagh (all h/t); Danny Gallagher for B Kearney (46); Kian Biggs and Ben Brolly for N Brolly and A McBride (both 66).

Referee: Barry Winters (Tyrone).