Oisin Gallen magic takes Sean MacCumhaills past Glenswilly and into SFC semis

Oisin Gallen sprinkled his star dust to steer Sean MacCumhaills past Glenswilly and into the Donegal SFC semi-finals.

Sean MacCumhaills 1-17 Glenswilly 1-14

Gallen scored a stunning 1-9, including a magical free a minute from the end, to pave the way for the Finnsiders, who came from seven points down.

The teams were deadlocked at 1-14 apiece and the result resting on a knife edge when Gallen stepped up to convert a free from out on the left-hand sideline. The kick seemed almost impossible but Gallen, a day after being named among the All-Star nominees for 2023, showed real class to edge a titanic tussle.

Gallen was everywhere as MacCumhaills reached to the depths of the reservoir. Down the closing stages, Conor McGinty and Joe Boyle won two big possessions from Glenswilly kick-outs and when Gallen added on two more points the Twin Towns contingent erupted

It felt something of a deception that Glenswilly led by seven, 1-9 to 0-5, when Michael Murphy goaled in the 29th minute. Kealan Dunleavy had just fired over a score for a 0-9 to 0-5 second barely thirty seconds earlier. 

Gary McFadden intercepted Eoin Gallen’s kick-out and a deft pass inside left Murphy with the inevitable task of firing to the net. Anyone thinking that was that was quickly reeled in.

The margin belied the tit-for-tat nature of the preceding incidents, but strokes of both Gallen’s right foot and good fortune hauled MacCumhaills right back into it with the last action of the opening half.

Gallen had posted four points earlier in the evening and he let fly off the lesser-used right foot. The shot dipped at the last, vital, second and deceived Glenswilly goalkeeper Kealan McFadden, bringing the deficit to 1-9 to 1-6 at the break.

The opening moments were lively and only the width of the Glenswilly crossbar denied Jamie Keegan a goal after only 39 seconds. Gallen teed up Keegan, but his left-footed effort thundered off the timber work.

Gallen and Murphy each found themselves double-marked. Gallen had Mark McAteer and Donal Gallagher for company with Andrew McCloskey and Aaron Gilooley attempting to keep the shackles on Murphy.

After a week in which a new report showed the demise in the number of kick passes in Gaelic football, they provided some of the highlights in the opening half.

There was the superb pass from Sean Martin to Gallen for the opening MacCumhaills point in the third minute or that from Cian Mulligan to find Keegan for a pointed mark in the tenth minute.

Murphy used all of his power and poise to fetch and hold a searching pass from Donal Gallagher. In spite of the close attention, Murphy claimed the forward mark and duly slotted over the bar to inch Glenswilly in front, 0-3 to 0-2.

Murphy and Gary McFadden, two survivors from Glenswilly’s maiden Donegal SFC triumph in 2011, landed two in a minutes, but MacCumhaills weren’t going quietly as Keegan and Gallen marched them right back within a point.

Momentarily, Glenswilly seemed to have taken a massive step to sealing a win, but Gallen’s goal  altered the talks over the refreshments in each dressing room.

Gallen bent a free over the black spot from wide on the left and Cian Mulligan sauntered up from corner-back to make it a one-point game 11 minutes into part two.

MacCumhaills were a man in arrears, Chad McSorley having been black-carded, when Joel Bradley-Walsh nailed a monster point to draw his men. During the time McSorley spent in the sin bin, MacCumhaills outscored their opponents by four points to one - the game’s crucial period.

Gallen, via a 20-metre mark, put MacCumhaills ahead for the first time in the 48th minute, but Gary McFadden - when his crosshairs might’ve been trained on the net - fired over with his team’s first score in 16 minutes.

With four minutes to go, Murphy struck gold with a wonderful free from the ’45 against the stiff breeze. Glenswilly were two up and eyeing the last four.

Enter Gallen and the dreams flicker for MacCumhaills for another week at least.

Sean MacCumhaills scorers: Oisin Gallen 1-9, 5f, 1m; Jamie Keegan 0-4, 1m;  Joel Bradley-Walsh 0-2; Cian Mulligan, Chad McSorley 0-1 each.

Glenswilly scorers: Michael Murphy 1-5, 3f, 1m; Gary McFadden 0-4, 1f; Shaun Wogan, Caolan Kelly, Kealan Dunleavy, Caoimhin Marley, Daithi Gildea 0-1 each

Sean MacCumhaills: Eoin Gallen; Cain Mulligan, Ruairi Callaghan, Aaron Gilhooley; Shaun McMenamin, Andrew McCloskey, Sean Martin; Joe Boyle, Steven O’Reilly; Sean Breen, Jamie Keegan, Chad McSorley; Joel Bradley-Walsh, Oisin Gallen, Conor McGinty. Subs: Kevin McCormack for Breen (h-t).

Glenswilly: Kealan McFadden; Jake Kelly, Mark McAteer, Caolan Kelly; Donal Gallagher, Jack Gallagher, Shane McDaid; Shaun Wogan, Caoimhin Marley; Cormac Callaghan, Shane McDevitt, Kealan Dunleavy; Gary McFadden, Michael Murphy, Oisin Crawford. Subs: Daithi Gildea for Crawford (47), Sean Collum for McDaid (51).

Referee: Jimmy White (Killybegs).