Donegal didn’t get what they wanted in Armagh but they got what they needed

There isn’t a single other away venue, Division 1 included, that could have asked nearly as many questions of Donegal as the Athletic Grounds posed on Sunday last.

At the tail end of February, it was a balmy-ish enough day as myself and Alan Foley hit the road for Armagh. As usual, we met up in Lifford for some food before heading on our way.

Pulling up a good hour and a half prior to throw-in, the place was already buzzing. It’s a superb stadium for football. It’s tight, and it’s seriously partisan.

And with close to 12,000 supporters jammed in as the clock eventually hit 3pm, you could have easily mistaken the fixture for an Ulster SFC one. And Jim McGuinness, especially, would have been besotted with what greeted Donegal.

With his team set to go away to reigning Ulster champions Derry in a hugely anticipated provincial championship opener on April 19, Sunday was as good a simulation as he could have wished for.

What’s gone before in this league campaign and whatever comes after, even if Donegal do reach the decider at Croker, won’t tick the same boxes that the weekend’s niggly clash with Armagh stroked.

It might have been Division 2 but inside and outside the white line, the mercury steadily rose and, to be fair to Donegal, so did they.

Is there a more physically formidable, intimidating really, managerial trio inGAA than UFC wannabe Kieran McGeeney and his backing duo of fellow Orchard toughnut Ciaran McKeever and Kerry legend, turned blow-in, Kieran Donaghy.

But to be fair to Donegal boss Jim McGuinness and his own unflinching wingmen Colm McFadden and Neil McGee, they didn’t let the home honcho and his pair of henchmen set any kind of agenda.

Any time the Armagh management looked to get in the ear of the linesman on that side, Donegal were right there too.

But it took a little time for this one to bubble. In what could best be described as an arm wrestle sort of opening, Donegal would have been quite content with their 0-3 to 0-1 lead on the quarter-hour mark.

With the crowd eerily quiet, Connaire Mackin kicked a second point for the hosts to stir some noise. However, once Andrew Murnin cracked in an Armagh goal on 19 minutes, the decibel level instantly cranked.

Is there a greater blight on Gaelic football right now than the foul committed just after a turnover and as the team in possession transitions towards a counterattack?

It looks innocent enough but it’s cynical in the extreme. The way in which both Donegal and Armagh set their stalls out on Sunday, they were susceptible, completely vulnerable, to being hit on the break.

But Armagh, immediately after raising their green flag, twice halted potential Donegal raids with innocuous enough looking tugs or fouls that prevented the visitors’ intentions of hitting on the break.

A furious McGuinness immediately looked to highlight the issue and both benches became involved in the kind of verbal spar that would have had your granny threatening to wash your mouth out with soap and water. The crowd got involved too, it was pure, brilliant pantomime.

Like I said, Donegal might not have taken maximum points back down the road but, in a strange sort of way, they took so much more.

In the end, hands were still shaken and smiles were even exchanged. Modern Gaelic football reaction, it’s mostly monotone drivel that’s served up post-match. But McGuinness and McGeeney were a breath of fresh air afterwards.

To be fair to McGuinness, he’s been an open and giving book ever since he arrived back on the scene. McGeeney, with arms folded, and guns popping, can often look confrontational, even when he was lining up for tea afterwards.

But down in the bowels of the Athletic Grounds immediately after full-time, the All-Ireland winning captain admitted he’d enjoyed the 70 or so minutes of action, and even afforded himself a chuckle when pressed on the colourful language swapped with his Donegal counterpart.

“We’re a bit old now for that carry on, unless we’re going to start throwing walking canes at each other! Jim was saying I was looking very young and I said the same back. It was all very jovial”.

McGuinness also looked on the lighter side of things when pressed for his version of events.

“It’s all good. It shows what’s on the line when it’s in the melting pot. It’s all part of the game up this part of the country. These types of games here, they are brilliant to be involved in. We’ll take plenty away from this”.

And McGuinness is right. Because the response he got from his players after the half hour mark, at 1-4 to 0-4 adrift, was superb.

Donegal, through a Patrick McBrearty brace and another over from Ciaran Thompson, managed to close out the gap to one by the midpoint at 1-5 to 0-7.

Donegal matched that feat following the restart as McBrearty again landed as did Oisin Gallen, twice.

Shane O’Donnell, back from injury and in off the bench, was closed down at the vital moment as he pulled the trigger on goal.

Armagh regrouped to square it at 1-8 to 0-11 but when Donegal were awarded a penalty on 64 minutes, it felt like a threshold moment. But Blaine Hughes guessed right to beat Gallen’s spot kick away.

Rian O’Neill, making his first appearance of the new season, must have thought he’d won it as matters drifted into the red. However, Donegal again showed admirable guts to dig in and through O’Donnell rescue a point.

Armagh boss McGeeney rued Jarly Óg Burn’s weak-fisted effort late on when he really should have cleared the crossbar.

On an afternoon when his dad - the new president of the association was paraded prior to throw-in - the script seemed written. But it wasn’t to be.

Given Armagh’s luckless fortunes with penalty kicks (they’ve lost three championship games in the two seasons, including the 2023 Ulster final, from the spot), McGeeney also admitted he feared the worst when Gallen lined his kick up. So a draw was perhaps a fair result.

A few hours after the dust had settled, and with only empty coffee cups and crisp bags still circulating in the air for company, we made our way through the darkness, back to the car, for the journey home.

A little over a year ago, Round 5 in Division 1 to be exact, we’d made the same commute as Donegal suffered their third loss of the campaign.

And the writing was well and truly on the wall for Paddy Carr, even at that stage. Results were dismal and the Academy fallout had just landed slap, bang in the middle of that slide.

A deluge of water has since passed under the Donegal Bridge and the changes that have occurred are still difficult to wrap your head around.

But the important thing is that Donegal, on and off the field, are now in a really good place.

Next up are Louth in Ballyshannon this coming Sunday. After that, Jim McGuinness and his players are looking at closing rounds in the league away to Kildare (Dr Cullen Park, Carlow) and at home to Meath.

Barring a capitulation of seismic proportions, Donegal look primed for an instant return to the top tier. What that would stand for or represent, in the greater scheme of things ahead of championship, only time will tell.

But there is no doubt, that if McGuinness is to use anything from the league as a reference point prior to Celtic Park, he’ll do well to lean on anything of more benefit than last Sunday’s draw in Armagh.