An alternative view: A bump in the road as Donegal return to earth in Omagh

The road to Omagh was paved with good intentions. And it was a busy road on Sunday last as Donegal supporters answered the call of new manager, Paddy Carr, and travelled in numbers not seen for a number of years.

Sitting at the back of the Healy Park ground, the number of green and gold bobble hats was impressive. As was the overall attendance on the first Sunday in February, the ground capacity was close to championship levels.

Conditions were excellent for a football game but it also necessitated a number of extra layers for the elder statesmen. But still there were a number of hardy young fellows who were kitted out in the new young cool dress code - shorts - one of those unexplainable perks of youth. CooI, it most certainly wasn’t. It’s true what they say about the youth; they can do everything better.

There are always stories around these games and down in Leitirmacaward there was a major scare when top supporter Cassie Melly was feeling poorly on Friday. But by Sunday morning she had got the thumbs up to make the journey.

I had been down there for a function on Friday evening and all the talk at that time was about Karl Lacey’s decision to stand down from the Donegal Academy. Everything looked in place for Donegal to build on a great opening day against Kerry in MacCumhaill Park. The Karl Lacey decision and the whingeing of Jack O’Connor after Kerry losing out to Donegal the previous week, were the main topics as Brendan O’Reilly’s car wound its way through Boa Island.

Getting to the Omagh ground early is paramount if you want to get a spot in the car park. It was half full when we turned in and we were treated to a new layout which confused the driver at first.

Alas, by around 3.35 the optimism which had been built up over seven days, had dipped as we returned to the said car park with our tails between our legs.

The contrast from a week earlier was marked. The buzz that had been created with a last minute winner against Kerry was now in the distance like a falling star. It is the nature of sport. The highs are great and the lows make you want to stay quiet and go to a corner on your own.

As for the game, it was one that was hard to describe. Tyrone won the toss and elected to play against the breeze and they also wanted to dictate the terms of the game. This they did from early on and once they got three points on the board, they decided that they were going to keep the ball as well.

At one stage in the first half, ‘keeper Niall Morgan was just toe tapping the ball on his own ‘45’ and did not want to move forward. It was so clear that at one stage referee David Gough seemed to be making his way back to tell him to get on with it.

I don’t know what the possession stats were for that opening half, but Tyrone must have been over 80% at least. Donegal, conscious of leaving gaps, retreated to their own ‘45’ as if they were waiting for an onslaught.

Jamie Brennan eventually said enough was enough and cut in to fire over from the 45m line. Another from Jeaic Mac Ceallabhuí was followed by an exocet from Shaun Patton to Caolan McGonagle and Conor O’Donnell availed of a Patrick McBrearty pass to cut the lead to a point.

And yet despite having access to the ball denied, Donegal should have gone ahead on 25 minutes when Conor O’Donnell’s fisted effort for a point came back off the crossbar to Jeaic Mac Ceallabhuí only for his effort to be taken off the line.

Tyrone did add two points but their 0-6 to 0-3 half-time scoreline hardly reflected their total domination.

The arrival of Peadar Mogan for the second half gave Donegal supporters a little lift, but despite the St Naul’s man putting in a good shift, the pendulum never shifted enough and slowly, but surely, Tyrone began pulling away. Darren McCurry got no change in open play from newcomer Mark Curran, but he missed nothing from placed balls.

There was little comfort from referee David Gough, who had been very hard on Stephen McMenamin in the first half and then missed a blatant push on Patrick McBrearty midway through the second half. To make matters worse McBrearty never recovered and had to be replaced, adding insult to injury. Donegal hit back with sporadic points but there was a trickle heading for the exits before the final quarter started.

And so the manager, Paddy Carr, had to stand in front of the media and give an explanation for the performance. That was as difficult to do as it was to heap praise on his charges the previous week.

There were some words of comfort that a few of the walking wounded would be back in the frame when we head to Clones on Sunday week to take on pointless Monaghan, who will be fighting for the Division 1 lives for the 40th year in succession - well it always seems that way.

After a decade of glory, Donegal are most definitely in transition. Like with all teams, we thought they would go on forever. But sport and life are not like that. Omagh on Sunday last was one of the many bumps in the road.

Remember the time when we made Clones our home ground back around the end of the 1980s and early 1990s? We will be back there on Sunday week and a good result would smooth out the road bumps on the way home.