Dungloe's gallop continues with victory against a depleted Malin side

Malin and Dungloe were two sides who were tipped to make inroads in the Donegal IFC - but three games in their plights couldn’t be more contrasting.

Malin 1-7
Dungloe 1-10

Dessie Gallagher’s Dungloe won for the third time as Malin went down to their third defeat in three. The visitors were much the better side and deserved this win by possibly more, but injury depleted Malin must get credit too for staying in the game and the home side must regroup quickly to retain their intermediate status.

Malin have been hit hard with long term injuries since winning promotion and confidence was low after losing their first two group games. This showed as Dungloe were quick out of the blocks with the lively Barry Curran hitting two points in the first five minutes.

Curran was on hand again to set up Oisin Bonner for a fisted point and also pounced on the resulting poor kick-out to set up Dylan Sweeney who drilled over to make it four points to no score early on.

Daire Gallagher missed a goal chance moments after pulling his shot to the left. The visitors were bossing things as Malin struggled to get into gear and Sweeney added another impressive point from the right. Malin got their first score on 15 minutes from a Christopher McLaughlin free after Conor O'Neill did well to win a long ball in, but was stopped in his tracks.

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Oisin Bonner freed from distance but Matthew Byrne responded with his own long distance point from play. Conor Diver made a driving run at the Malin defence and should have done better as he drove wide as last year's beaten finalists missed another goal chance.

The half time score was 0-6 0-2 in favour of the dominant visitors. Dungloe got off to a dream start in the second half with Matthew Ward rifling home a goal to give them the seven-point lead that their first half performance deserved.

Matthew Byrne kept Malin in touch with three in a row, the first after Conor O'Neill did well to keep the ball under pressure in the corner and scoring again working a short 45 with Christopher McLaughlin while the third was due to pure determination, driving over from 40 yards in Malin's best spell of the game up to then.

Dungloe spurned yet another goal chance when the jinking Dylan Sweeney got through but Mullarkey did well to save. Christopher McLaughlin fired over a free well won by Josh Conlan to leave just a goal in it going into the final quarter.

Matthew Ward made a great score all by himself on the 45', Oisin Bonner fired over shortly afterwards from close in and Sweeney fisted over the bar to extend the gap and Dungloe were six to the good again.

There was still time for a nervy finish, as despite Malin being reduced to 14 men after John Gerard McLaughlin seen red for a big hit on Barry Curran, Christopher McLaughlin advanced and coolly rolled in a goal and heading into over six minutes of injury time, Josh Conlan knocked over a free and Malin thought they had still had a chance.

Ryan Brennan ran up the left and wisely fisted over to extend the lead to three. Malin lobbed in a number of high balls but the Dungloe defence stood strong and even though Malin goalkeeper Mullarkey came up to the edge of the square for a late free in and punched a score, it was over the bar but the full-time whistle had sounded  before it did.

Malin scorers: Christopher McLaughlin 1-2, 2f; Matthew Byrne 0-4; Josh Conlan 0-1, 1f.
Dungloe scorers: Matthew Ward 1-1; Dylan Sweeney 0-3; Oisin Bonner 0-3, 2f; Barry Curran 0-2; Ryan Brennan 0-1.

Malin: Daniel Mullarkey; Charles Byrne, Damien Harkin, Conor Farren; Matthew Byrne, Ciaran Doherty, Paul McLaughlin; Daniel Houghton, John Gerard McLaughlin; Joseph Doherty, Conor O'Neill, Christopher McLaughlin; Josh Conlan, Terence Doherty, Shaun Kelly. Subs: Darragh McGeoghegan and McGonagle for Kelly and Charles Byrne (50)
Dungloe: Danny Rodgers; Jason McBride, Christy Greene, Gerard Walsh; Conor Diver, Conor O'Donnell, Jordan Saville; Darren Curran, Ryan Brennan; Dylan Sweeney, Aaron Ward, Matthew Ward; Darren Gallagher, Barry Curran, Oisin Bonner. Shaun McGee for Walsh (47), Daniel Ward for M Ward (58)