By Francis Mooney
Donegal manager Rory Gallagher paid tribute to his midfield warriors for swinging a tight Qualifier tie in his side’s favour at Croke Park.
Galway had their noses in front in the early stages of the second half, but once Neil Gallagher, Martin McElhinney and Odhran MacNiallais started to dominate around the central third, there was no stopping the men from the north-west.
Ryan McHugh and Christy Toye banged in goals, and Donegal blew the Tribesmen away on their way to a 3-12 to 0-11 win and an All-Ireland quarter-final clash with Mayo.
“It’s old-fashioned, but the middle of the field had a big bearing on it. in the first half they won seven out of their nine (kick-outs), but in the second half we dominated a lot of it, and when we had the ball we were far more dangerous,” said Gallagher.
“Gaining the foothold in the middle of the field, we felt all along that if we had the lion’s share of the ball, we would cause Galway a lot of problems.”
And the return to form of Colm McFadden was a massive bonus to the beaten Ulster champions, who bounced back from defeat to Monaghan in the provincial decider to get back on track in the race for Sam Maguire.
“He was excellent. He was involved in all three goals, he looked really powerful.”
Skipper Michael Murphy played a key role, particularly when posted at full forward, and Gallagher suggested that he is likely to play a more advanced role in the remainder of the championship.
“It’s not easy in Ulster when there’s five or six men in around the D. that’s the way Ulster teams play, and probably that was part of the plan all along, to play him out the field in Ulster, where he’s going to get more touches.
“In the games over the years he has played in Ulster, he gets very minimal touches inside.
“He can play with the ball low, he can win it high, he’s very dangerous and I thought his vision to set up the goal for Ryan was top class.”
Meanwhile, Galway boss Kevin Walsh admitted that his players left themselves vulnerable in the latter stages by throwing caution to the wind and committing more men to the attack in an attempt to get themselves back in the game.
For the last few minutes, we left ourselves exposed at the back, maybe going out to try and get the game back.
“Maybe there are certain teams out there who will stick to process of being in defence all day and be happy to lose by three or four points.
“That’s not in this team. I think we had to go out and try and win that game. We felt we were going to win that game, and there’s no point in going home with regrets,” he said.
Walsh feared the writing was on the wall once Ryan McHugh finished sublimely for a brilliant second Donegal goal.
“When they got the second goal, after that it was very had to pull back a very good team.
“We fought very hard for about 50 minutes, and I’m very proud of how they worked, even though the wheels came off in the last few minutes.”