The Alternative View: Jimmy’s winning matches again

Even though St Tiernach’s Park hosted its first Ulster final as far back as 1905, for those few seconds after Shaun Patton had stopped Armagh’s sixth penalty the old ground had never seen scenes like it.

The gladiatorial dual between Donegal and Armagh was finally over. Donegal had won. For something eventually separated by the tiniest of margins, the contrasting emotions between the combatants at the conclusion could not have been further apart.

As Patrick McBrearty, the Donegal skipper, went through his speech, just a few feet beneath him, inside the tunnel in the shade, Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney leant against a wall and stared into nothingness.

He barely even blinked. There have been six penalty shootouts ever in senior championship inter-county GAA and Armagh has lost four of them.

On three occasions his side had led by four points, deep into the second half, only for Donegal to scrape extra-time. With nine minutes remaining, the stewards had been summoned to their end-of-match positions. Had it not been for a mix-up with three minutes of injury time signalled late, almost two and a half minutes into that injury time, Donegal might’ve even pinched the victory, as they were working an avenue with the score tied at 0-15 to 0-15.

Having lost their way following a good third quarter where uncertainly whether to stick or twist choked their play, Armagh pushed again in extra-time to go two in front. Peadar Mogan and the gunslinger Odhran Doherty, with one of those sweet left-footed strikes, levelled it again. They would not be separated by conventional means.

As extra-time ended, the barriers were placed at the mouth of the tunnel, for the victorious panel to battle their way in through the crowds afterwards. The sponsors’ boards were planted for post-match interviews, but blocked the view of those in the lower seats of the Pat McGrane, who let their feelings known, so were hurriedly removed again. This wouldn’t be over till it was over.

Up stepped Ciaran Thompson, Aaron Doherty, Michael Langan, Jason McGee and Daire Ó Baoill to score, with Armagh’s Shane McPartlan, Conor Turbitt, Oisín Conaty, Aidan Nugent and Tiernan Kelly to restore parity each time as the temperature notched up a touch with each passing moment.

Patton, for that generation old enough to remember, was a little like Packie Bonner in Italia 90 against Romania, getting closer and closer to each one the longer it went on. In the harshest stipulation of the lot, those same quintet then have to go again if it remains inseparable in sudden death, with Doherty breaking the order and coolly slotting home Donegal’s sixth, with a carbon copy of his first, before McPartlan was denied by Patton.

Langan admitted afterwards he was the next to go and of all the collective sighs of relief in Clones, his might’ve been the loudest. The sense was that if Doherty had to go up five times in succession, he would have.

Usually in such situations, the winning goalkeeper gets mobbed by his teammates but when Patton looked up he was faced with the unenviable proposition of all of them plus a large chunk of the sellout crowd charging towards him as Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Glory Days’ blared out of the tannoys. In the middle of the field, as those with the younger legs scampered, Jim McGuinness turned to Colm McFadden, Neil McGee, Kieran Espey, James Gallagher and Donal Barrett.

The 6-5 win following a 0-20 to 0-20 after extra-time draw means over the course of league and championship this year, Donegal pipped the Orchard County 0-48 to 1-44 following 230 bruising minutes at three different venues.

For McBrearty, he is the first person from the county male or female to reach a personal total of half-a-dozen provincial titles, having won his first as a 17-year-old under McGuinness back in their maiden season of 2011.

Before a ball was thrown into the air that season following one of the coldest winters on record, Donegal, in their history, had won an All-Ireland and five Ulsters, all under the watch of Brian McEniff. In the 14 years since, Donegal have won Sam Maguire again and have six more Anglo-Celt Cup successes, with Declan Bonner overseeing two of those and McGuinness the rest.

When McGuinness first took charge, Donegal hadn’t won a match in Ulster in three seasons and before his second stint, last year’s defeat to Down was the first time Donegal failed to clear the first hurdle in Ulster since 2010. McGuinness, in five campaigns over two spells, has come out on top in 16 from 17, with the only blip being the 2013 loss against Monaghan. Overall in the championship, he’s 23 from 27, with Dublin, Mayo and Kerry the only other losses.

Last year in Newry, it was suggested that Donegal’s ticket orders totalled just 250, with some clubs not receiving a single request. When Donegal lost a second round qualifier to Armagh 3-17 to 0-16 just under two years ago in Clones, there was a photo doing the rounds of a single Donegal flag engulfed in an orange and white tornado.

On Sunday, St Tiernach’s Park was sold-out to a capacity of 28,986, following on from the respective clashes against Derry and Tyrone at Celtic Park, which was maxed on each occasion at exactly 14,714.

Clones, on Ulster final day, is different. As Oisín McConville, the former Armagh forward and BBC pundit mentioned beforehand, it’s not the sort of place you’d expect to get wifi or a phone signal, it’s all about the match and the occasion. Hard to get to and even tougher to get out of, there’s something of a rustic charm about the place, where you feel you’re almost stepping back in time. Ten years after the European single currency was introduced in 2002, if you wanted to shift some of the old punts in the Monaghan town, it was said that you’d be accommodated. It’s as if time stood still.

The narrow streets build up in atmosphere from the morning, as, with the various inlets to the town susceptible to jam early, folk tend to hit the road not long after breakfast and arm themselves with flasks and sandwiches. The St Tiernach’s Park gates stayed locked till early afternoon with sound-checks and cameramen pottering about. It was interesting to overhear the stewards’ briefing, where they were told of their duties before the last line thrown in being “... and may the best team win. Hopefully Armagh.”

Nobody seemed too upset as they set about their business as supporters were optimistically requested not to take photographs of the band.

With no curtain raiser, More Power to Your Elbow, an eight-piece band from the Mid-Ulster area, blared out the tunes and made those sound checks that little more difficult. Armagh emerged a little early about half an hour before the 4pm start and Donegal a few minutes later, but you got the feeling that you’d be there for a while. “Chat to you before extra-time,” one Donegal follower joked to another as they made their way off in separate directions before it had even started.

Despite the brilliance of Oisin Gallen, Donegal trailed 0-10 to 0-9 at half-time, with both sides showing some exemplary shooting. Donegal had a single wide, posted on 32 minutes, with Armagh totting just three. From the morning haze, there was now a thunderstorm, as if the gods wanted to add to the occasion. Up went the brollies.

Armagh, on 53 minutes, saw Stefan Campbell weave his way in and then out for a 0-15 to 0-11 lead. But Donegal, driven during this difficult spell by Niall O’Donnell and Langan, trusted the process and played with patience and preciseness.

Even though they were playing catch-up they seemed more assured in what they were doing, while Armagh looked uncomfortable leading, and whether to stick or twist. Donegal seized that uncertainty and took it to extra-time, where their subsequent arrears of two points looked more worrying than their previous four as time wound down.

If tactical nous took Donegal past Derry, fitness overcame Tyrone, then the win over Armagh was about steeliness. Down on the pitch afterwards, it was like a flashback for those who were there in McGuinness’s first era and for those too young, they had something tangible to the stories they might’ve heard time and again. It’s possible Donegal supporters might’ve thought they’d never see the likes again but they’re beginning to dream again. Jimmy’s winning matches again.