NINE SECONDS IN, Michael Murphy grabbed a goal on his way to 2-6 as Glenswilly came out on top against Bundoran in a cracking match.
Glenswilly 2-15 Ardara 2-11
Bundoran, boosted by the lightening Jamie Brennan – the scorer of 2-2 himself – were right in the contest at 2-10 apiece with just 13 minutes left.
But Glenswilly, having taken the Dr Maguire back to Pairc Naomh Columba three times since 2011, had enough know-how to get over the line. Despite going down 2-6 to 0-10 in Ardara last Sunday are now a real player again in the Donegal SFC, needing a win of any type against Burt to progress to the quarter-finals.
Bundoran, who beat Burt 1-10 to 0-5 last time out, need to win by three points minimum to reach the last eight.
Right from the off today, there was incident as both teams by and late went man-for-man . Neil Gallagher fetched referee Seamus McGonigle’s throw-in, paced forward a few steps and bombed the ball in on top of Murphy who smashed past Ashley Mulhern – only nine seconds had been played.
That didn’t deter the visitors though, as six minutes later their county colleagues manufactured a fine goal of their own. Paul Brennan broke into space and fed it to Jamie Brennan to smash past James Gallagher.
Jamie Brennan then scored a fine effort whilst cutting inside and when Michael McEniff held his nerve to push over on eight minutes, Bundoran were 1-2 to 1-1 up.
The helter-skelter nature of the half continued but four points in succession from Glenswilly enabled them to establish a two-point interval lead. Caoimhin Marley and Oisin Crawford, who would finish the day with four and three respectively, drove on the hosts.
Glenswilly were 1-9 to 1-7 in front at half-time as the crowd drew breath.
Paul Brennan scored a fine point to open part two, which took a little while simmering before coming to the boil. Bundoran, just one down, had Glenswilly in their sights but a free and a 41st minute goal from Murphy, the goal coming when he found space to ram home, reestablished a somewhat healthy 2-10 to 1-8 advantage.
Bundoran were still a huge threat and points from Timmy Govorov and Gary Clancy took them to within three and they were almost level when Jamie Brennan slalomed his way through only to shot low, inches wide of the post.
Donegal’s Ulster SFC winning corner-forward, though, was not perturbed by his miss, and a minute later – not the 47th – came late onto a McEniff batt-down to score his second goal of the day. It levelled the match at 2-10 each.
It was then that Glenswilly managed to do what they had to do. Late scores from Marley, Murphy and Crawford, with two, gave them a four-point win to conclude a fine spectacle.
Glenswilly: James Gallagher; Mark McAteer, Eamon Ward, Ruairi Crawford; Joe Gibbons, Ryan Diver, Oisin Crawford (0-3); Neil Gallagher, Shaun Wogan; Caolan Kelly, Caoimhin Marley (0-4), Brian Farrelly (0-1); Kealan McFadden, Michael Murphy (2-6, 4f), Gary McFadden (0-1). Subs: Cormac Callaghan for Diver (40), Leon Kelly for Wogan (49), Cathal Gallagher for Farrelly (59).
Bundoran: Ashley Mulhern; Mattie Ward, Paul Brennan (0-1), Diarmuid McCaughey; Peter McGonigle, Pauric Rooney, Paul Murphy (0-1); Shane McGowan, Ciaran McCaughey; Niall Dunne, Michael McEniff (0-2), Gary Clancy (0-3, 1f); Jamie Brennan (2-2), Tommy Hourihane (0-1), Timmy Govorov (0-1). Subs: Alan Wilson for Hourihane (41).
Referee: Seamus McGonigle (Aodh Ruadh)
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