Donegal do enough to squeeze past Louth and into a fifth Nickey Rackard final

Donegal hurlers reached their fourth Nickey Rackard Cup final in a decade, after this somewhat jittery win over a physically powerful Louth side in O’Donnell Park.

Donegal 2-19 Louth 4-7

While they were the better hurlers, 15 wides and the concession of four goals is something that team boss Mickey McCann will be focusing on before June 3 against Wicklow. They are at home to Wicklow next weekend in a meaningless match which looks likely to be going ahead.

Louth caused the home side huge problems when they ran directly at them, and Donegal sub keeper Dylan Lafferty had an uncomfortable afternoon and his unfortunate error led to one of Louth’s second half goals.

But it took a moment of sheer magic from corner forward Ruairi Campbell to make the real difference to this scrappy affair in the 52nd minute. Campbell fielded a high ball and left two markers in his wake before hammering the sliotar to the net to put Donegal into a 2-16 to 1-6 lead.

But it was all needed as Louth, who failed to score for 20 minutes in the second half, stormed back through goals from Tom Matthews, Sean Hodgins and Hodgins was very unlucky not to land a fifth, but his screamer came off the crossbar in the final moments.

Donegal hung on to win by six points but there is room for loads of improvement. But they will be anxiously hoping that Declan Coulter, who had to go off with a suspected broken thumb after a late attempted block, will be fit for the final.

McCann was not happy as he said it was clearly a red card and that Coulter had been struck with the edge of the hurley. Donegal had a super start when classy corner forward Ruairi Campbell dispossessed his marker and struck a fabulous point after just 12 seconds.

But the home side were rocked as Louth hit back in spades when wing forward Tom Matthews speared through the Donegal defence and smashed the sliotar to the net after two minutes.

McKinnney and Declan Coulter levelled matters at 1-1 to 0-4 with Liam Molloy getting Louth’s second point. But Coulter had to go off with a nasty looking thumb injury and Danny Cullen came on and was a most steadying influence.

It got better in the 11th minute when Cullen found team captain Ronan McDermott inside the Louth defence and the Burt man blasted home. Suddenly Donegal were leading by 1-7 to 1-1 but were also racking up the wides as well, hitting ten in the first half.

McKinney, and Brian McIntyre were on target for Donegal while Walsh replied for Louth as the home side led by 1-11 to 1-5 lead at the break. Walsh narrowed the gap to five from an early free as McKinney and McDermott hit two quick fire points for Donegal.

But they were stung in the 40th minute when keeper Dylan Lafferrty batted the ball out to the unmarked Matthews who took the gift and slammed the sliotar to the net to leave Donegal leading by 1-14 to 2-6.

Danny Cullen struck a fine long- range point before Campbell’s superb strike put Donegal into a 2-16 to 2-6 lead in the 52nd minute. But instead of killing this game off- Donegal switched off as big gaps appeared in a defence that constantly struggled with the physique and aerial power of Louth.

Walsh hit Louth’s first score in 20 minutes in the 59th minute. Sub Sean Hodgins was unmarked, and he fired to the net in the 65th minute and Walsh grabbed another goal in the 64th minute.

Donegal hung on with Cullen’s cool head vital as Louth pressed hard but just had too much ground to make up as the home side stuttered home to a six points victory that should have been much more.

Donegal scorers: Liam McKinney 0-7, 2f; Ronan McDermott 1-1 and Ruairi Campbell 1-1; Danny Cullen 0-3; Declan Coulter 0-2,1f;  Stephen Gillespie 0-2; Gerry Gilmore, Conor Gartland and Daire O’Maoileidigh and Kevin Curran 0-1.
Louth scorers: Ryan Walsh 1-4, 4f; Tom Matthews 2-0; Sean Hodgins 1-0; Liam Molloy 0-2; Seaghan Conneely 0-1.

Donegal: Dylan Lafferty; Gavin Browne, Michael Donaghue, Stephen Gillespie; Christopher McDermott, Stephen McBride, Bernard Lafferty; Ronan McDermott, Daire O’Maoileidigh; Conor Gartland, Declan Coulter, Liam McKinney; Ruairi Campbell, Gerry Gilmore, Brian McIntyre. Subs; Danny Cullen for Declan Coulter (8), Ryan Hilferty for Brian McIntyre (46), Conor O’Grady for Gerry Gilmore (50),Ciaran Bradley for Christopher McDermott ((54) Kevin Curran for Daire O’Maoileidigh (60),
Louth: Dan O’Neill; Adam Plunkett, Conor Quigley, Danny Moran; Conall Shaw, Liam Molloy, Peter Fortune; Mark Gahan, Andrew Macklin (20); Jamie McDonnell, Ronan Mulholland (17) Tom Matthews; Padraig Fallon, Conor Murphy, Ryan Walsh. Subs. Seaghan Conneely for Mark Gahan (25), Sean Hodgkins for Andrew Macklin (h-time), Aaron McGuinness for Conor Murphy (52) Gareth Hall and Jack Murray for Padraig Fallon and Danny Morgan (55)
Referee: James Clarke (Cavan)