Late drama as Armagh snatch draw against dominant Donegal in U-16 championship

In a fiercely contested clash in MacCumhaill Park, Ballybofey, Donegal and Armagh played out a thrilling draw in the latest round of the Ulster U-16 Championship which saw Armagh hit a late equaliser after complete domination from the home side in the second half.  

A standout performance from Mia O’Donnell, who racked up an impressive seven points, kept Donegal in the fight, while Armagh’s Abigail McMahon found the net in the first half to give her side the edge.  

Both teams traded blows in an end-to-end encounter, with Donegal battling back from a three-point deficit at the break to take the lead in the closing stages, only for Armagh to snatch a late equaliser through Jessica McCreesh. 

O’Donnell opened the scoring for Donegal in the first minute after a superb bit of quick play that saw the ball easily transition from the hands of the Donegal ‘keeper up to the corner-forward within seconds, with the Dungloe native firing over. 

Armagh were sharp with the high press and punished Donegal in defence with Lauren McAlinden and Cara McGeary firing over to push the Orchard County into the lead. 

The Armagh ladies were finding a lot of space in the forward line and nearly slotted home an early goal in the opening 10 minutes when McAlinden eased her way through to find herself one-on-one with Elianne McFadden but the Donegal goalkeeper did brilliantly to pull off a point-blank save and push the ball away to safety. 

O’Donnell was again in front to nail over her third of the afternoon, but then came the Armagh goal, with McAlinden once more finding space, taking on her defender, before feeding the ball to Abigail McMahon over the top who finished cooley into the net for the opening goal after 12 minutes. 

O’Donnell nearly had a goal of her own but was just denied by the post as the ball was brought back for a free, which she kicked over to make it a one-point game after 15 minutes. 

The Armagh captain Cassie Henderson pushed the gap out to two with a mighty overhead kick while Lily McBennett added her name to the scoreboard with two impressive back-to-back points. 

O’Donnell hit her side’s first point in nearly 17 minutes when she registered her fifth point of the afternoon but McMahon replied with vigor for Armagh by pushing the game back out to four points. 

Half-back Sofie Campbell had the final say of the half when the Naomh Conaill player drove through the heart of the Armagh defence to nail over from distance to leave it 1-6 to 0-6 at the break. 

Donegal were the better of the two teams for the start of the second half, keeping Armagh scoreless for the opening 10 minutes of the match while rattling off two points of their own, with O’Donnell striking her sixth of the afternoon, while Eva McNamara hit over from distance to make it a one-point game. 

Toni Boyle levelled the game on the 47th minute, kicking over under severe pressure on the edge of the ‘D’ as Donegal continued their second-half purple patch playing against a strong wind. 

Armagh regained the lead with their first score of the half on the 51st minute when Henderson slotted a nice low ball into McGeary, who in turn, played it to substitute Cara O’Hanlon off the shoulder, who had space to kick over. 

But O’Donnell was again on fire to level the game straight from the kickout as she shot over another free to leave the match all to play for as the game entered the final minutes in Ballybofey. 

It looked like Donegal had the winner when McNamara shot her second of the afternoon with another mighty boot from distance, but Armagh was not out. With time ticking away, they won possession through the captain Henderson, who kicked a glorious ball into Jessica McCreesh who nailed over to level the match.  

Henderson had one final opportunity to seal the winner when she shot from a tight angle but her effort skimmed across the goal and out wide as the final whistle blew for Donegal’s second draw of this championship campaign. 

Donegal scorers: Mia O’Donnell 0-7, 3fs; Eva McNamara 0-2; Toni Boyle and Sofie Campbell 0-1 each. 
Armagh scorers: Abigail McMahon 1-1; Lily McBennett 0-2; Cara O’Hanlon, Lauren McAlinden, Jessica McCreesh, Cara McGeary, and Cassie Henderson 0-1 each. 

Donegal: Elianne McFadden; Aoibheann McCann, Aoibhínn Wallace, Kate McCafferty; Laura Boyle, Nicole Bonar Gillespie, Sofie Campbell; Laura Quinn, Sarah Hegarty; Toni Boyle, Eva McNamara, Evangaline McDermott; Orla Ward, Cayla McFadden, Mia O’Donnell. Kristie Boyle for Hegarty (HT); Rachel Gillespie for McFadden (40); Cadhla Gillespie for McDermott (47); 

Armagh: Connie Havern; Aoife Mackle, Lily Rafferty, Zara Dolan; Niamh McKenna, Aoife Hagan, Olivia Reynolds; Erin McCann, Cassie Henderson; Lily McBennett, Cara McGeary, Jessica McCreesh; Abigail McMahon, Lauren McAlinden, Annie McGeown. Subs: Emma Duffy for McCann (43); Cara O’Hanlon for McAlinden (47) 

Referee: Shane McGoldrick