DONEGAL suffered a heartbreaking loss against Armagh to deny them a place in the TG4 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-finals for the first time in their history.
Donegal 2-11 Armagh 2-13
Donegal were leading or, at worst, level for 54 minutes of the hour but fell narrowly at the bitter end, with Fionnuala McKenna and Aimee Mackin sealing a narrow win for the Orchard County.
As James Daly, the Armagh manager, said to his Donegal counterpart Davy McLaughlin as they shook hands afterwards, there was only a kick of the ball between them.
Despite an excellent personal performance from Yvonne McMonagle, who scored 2-3, the persistence Armagh won out on the day. It was a dramatic game full of ebbs and flows, but that’s of no consolation to Donegal right now.
McMonagle’s first goal four minutes from the end of the first half gave Donegal traction. She powered the ball past Armagh goalkeeper Katie Daly after a perfect pass from Niamh Hegarty, who took a late hit for her troubles.
That gave Donegal a three-point cushion, 1-6 to 0-6, with Aoife McDonnell pushing the gap out to four before Armagh’s Caroline O’Hanlon and Aoife Lennon halved that deficit as the half drew to a close. Donegal went in ahead, 1-7 to 0-8.
Then, 14 minutes from time with Armagh persistent in getting level but having never gone ahead, McMonagle goaled for second time when McDonnell set her away into space to edge Donegal 2-10 to 1-10 in front.
But Armagh levelled when Lennon scored their second goal  after some quick shuffling of possession only 90 seconds later, so the melting pot remained in full use.
Five-and-a-half minutes from time, following points at either end, a free from the same player, Lennon, gave Armagh a 2-12 to 2-11 advantage – it was the first time they led all day. Mackin rounded off the scoring.
Despite Donegal making a good start, in which they were 0-4 to 0-1 ahead inside of only seven minutes, Armagh were always clinging to their coattails. Hegarty, who provided a turn of pace at every opportunity when in possession, had opened the scoring before three points from Geraldine McLaughlin.
Armagh, for whom Kelly Mallon had opened their scoring from a free, took a little time to come to the boil. However, they shaded the scoring stakes in the mid-section of the first half, with Mallon, Mackin and Lauren McConville all popping over scores.
And when McMonagle and Mackin, either sides’ star turns swapped points, it was 0-6 to 0-6 before the goal from the Donegal wing-forward was the most telling factor in the two-pont interval lead.
When the sides last met, in the Tesco Homegrown Ladies National Football League Division Two final in May, it was Armagh, with Mackin scoring 2-5, who ran out 4-18 to 4-6 winners. It was, before today, the only time Donegal had lost all season.
In many ways, that loss was a seminal moment for Donegal and manager McLaughlin, who took the Parnell Park defeat on his own shoulders, devised a slightly more robust way of playing without curving the influence of their instinctive attackers.
A pioneering Ulster title at the top bracket then followed last month with a memorable 2-12 to 1-10 victory over Monaghan, the upward curve of football in the north-west continued at St Tiernach’s Park in Clones.
Armagh came out all guns blazing at the start of the second period but Donegal tried to fight fire with fire. Niamh McLaughlin broke from her sweeper position to point and then captain Katy Herron also scored.
Donegal were 1-9 to 0-8 ahead but Armagh, who had fired a warning shot early in the second half when Laura Gallagher had to save from O’Hanlon, manufactured a goal to get themselves right back into the contest.
A flowing move, on 36 minutes, saw Aoife McCoy and O’Hanlon swap passed before freeing up Aoife Lennon on the left to shoot past Gallagher.
Donegal were getting pushed back farther and farther and although McMonagle stemmed the tide with a fine point, Amagh got back to 1-10 apiece with Malone’s free preceding a masterful score from Lennon from the right flank.
After both sides goaled again through McMonagle and O’Hanlon, it was level at 2-10 to 2-10. Tellingly, after Geradline McLaughlin had edged Donegal a point up, Hegarty was sin-binned and Donegal lost their link between defence and attack. McMonagle was also denied a hat-trick when, in space, she saw Daly save.
Armagh would lose O’Hanlon to the same punishment but in the frenzy that was to follow, it was they who maintained their composure to win.
Donegal: Laura Gallagher; Treasa Doherty, Emer Gallagher, Nicole McLaughlin; Therese McCafferty, Kate Keaney, Ciara Hegarty; Gráinne Houston, Katy Herron (0-1); Yvonne McMonagle (2-3), Niamh Hegarty (0-1), Niamh McLaughlin (0-1); Geraldine McLaughlin (0-4, 2f), Amber Barrett, Aoife McDonnell (0-1). Subs: Rose Boyle for McCafferty (27), Emma McCrory for Barrett (40), Roisin McCafferty for Houston (43), Karen Guthrie for Boyle (53), Aislinn Cunningham for McCrary (58)
Armagh: Katie Daly; Mairead Tennyson, Caoimhe Morgan, Aoibhinn Henderson; Sharon Reel, Sinead McCleary, Niamh Marley; Aoife Lennon (1-3), Caroline O’Hanlon (1-2, 1f); Aoife McCoy, Kelly Mallon (0-3, 3f), Lauren McConville (0-1); Sarah Marley, Fionnuala McKenna (0-1), Aimee Mackin (0-3, 1f).  Subs: Megan Sheridan for McCambridge (26), CaitlÃn Malone for McConville (45), Marian McGuinness for Sheridan (45), Catherine Marley for McCoy (59).
Referee: Seamus Mulvihill (Kerry).
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