Donegal minors finally off the mark with fine league win over Armagh in Convoy

Mark Anthony McGuinness, Darragh O’Hare and Oisin Mullen scored the goals as Donegal overcame Armagh at the Donegal Training Centre in Convoy earlier this afternoon.

McGuinness scored his two goals in the opening half while O’Hare and Mullan struck late as Donegal cruised to an 11-point win.

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Thomas McHugh, Danny Óg Cooney, and Jonah Cannon kicked the first-half points for Karl Lacey’s lads.

Corner forward Aodhán Carson Gallagher scored the opening Armagh goal and Fiachra Maxwell and Oran Leneghan scored the Orchard’s first-half points.

Donegal led by double scores at the break, 2-8 to 1-4, at the end of a half where the hosts dominated for much of the 30-plus minutes.

McHugh and Cooney got Donegal up and running with early points before McGuinness struck for his first green flag 13 minutes into the game.

The goal was a quick response to the Armagh three-pointer as O’Hare and Mullan combined well to find McGuinness through on goal.

The green flag propelled Donegal into a 1-2 to 1-0 lead and was quickly followed by strikes from Cooney, Cannon and O’Hare to open up a four-point lead by the end of the first quarter.

Fiachra Maxwell from play, and Oran Leneghan from a close-in free, registered for the visitors to trim the Donegal lead to two points.

But the gap was out to five for the first time when McGuinness again did the business for goal number two and a 2-5 to 1-3 advantage with half-time approaching.

And with Donegal tails were well and truly up, thanks to Cannon and O’Hare as they helped make it a seven-point game at the changeover.

Armagh started the second-half on the front foot and Shane Toner kicked the opening score of the new period seven minutes in to reduce the Donegal advantage to six points.

But once again, McGuinness stepped up to land a monster two-point score for a 2-11 to 1-5 Donegal advantage with less than ten minutes gone on the second-half clock.

And with Cooney and O’Hare again splitting the posts with fine scores, the Donegal lead went out to ten points.

Maxwell, Armagh’s best player, scored a late consolation goal before Mullan and O’Hare struck the net late for Donegal to put a nice gloss on a deserving win.

After a draw away to Antrim on day one, and a narrow defeat last weekend against Monaghan, this was a welcome win for Donegal manager Lacey and his squad.

Donegal scorers: Mark Anthony McGuinness 2-2, 2 tp; Darragh O’Hare 1-4, 1f; Oisin Mullan 1-1; Danny Óg Cooney and Jonah Cannon 0-3 each; Conor Griffin, Tadhg McDaid and Logan Melly 0-1 each.

Armagh scorers: Fiachra Maxwell 2-2; Aodhán Carson Gallagher 1-0; Oran Leneghan 0-2, 2f; Oran Leneghan 0-2, 2f,  Shane Toner and Niall Murray 0-1 each.

Donegal; Cormac Crossan; Niall McBrearty, Mark Wilkinson, Rynne Rowan; Thomas McHugh, Conor Griffin, Matthew McGinley; Tadhg McDaid, Aaron McGinley; Oisin Mullen, Danny Óg Cooney, Danny O’Hare; JonaH Cannon, Mark Anthony McGuinness, MJ Ward.

Subs: Evan Duffy for Ward (29, inj); Jamie Monaghan for T McHugh (51); Logan Melly for J Cannon (58); Kian Gallagher for M Wilkinson (60).

Armagh: Charlie McGuinness; Emmet Doran, Oisin McCrink, Sean Callaghan; Brendan Ferreira, Tadhg Feeney, Conor Barry; Niall Murray, Cahir Vallely; Scott Harris, Jack Gorman, Fiachra Maxwell; Shane Toner, Oran Leneghan, Aodhan Carson Gallagher.

Subs: Cormac McEntee for C Vallely (41); Evan McElvana for S Toner (52); James Shppard for S Harris (53).

Referee Marty Coyle (Tyrone)