St Eunan’s open All-County SHL with fine win over MacCumhaills 

St Eunan’s had too much for a battling MacCumhailla in  this entertaining opener to the domestic hurling calender in Donegal. 

The winners laid firm foundations for this victory when they led by 2-12 to 0-6 at the break.

Darkness began to fall in the second half as MacCumhaills staged a strong rally in the final quarter and hit two goals to put a better gloss on the final result.

But there was never any doubting the winners’ superiority. St Eunan’s began briskly and had a point from John Kealy after just 15 seconds.

This was swiftly followed by two more points for the hosts from Russell and Gavin Forde.

MacCumhaills opened their account from a Dan Donnelly free after five minutes but the home side swiftly responded through Matt Ahern.

Lively midfielder Fergal Delaney made it 0-5 to 0-2 before ex-Donegal star Lee Henderson hit a superb point from a free from 75m into a stiff breeze.

But it was all Eunan’s, who were especially dominant in midfield and the impressive James O’Donnell and Gavin Forde made it 0-8 to 0-2 after 12 minutes.

MacCumhaills underage star Dan Donnelly made a great catch and found Jamie De Ward who hit a fine point.

But Eunan’s responded in a heartbeat with a sweeping move that ended with the in-form Gavin Forde rifling the sliotar to the net.

Henderson replied with a pointed free, but Russell Forde kept the Letterkenny scoring machine ticking over with two points in succession.

It got even better for the home side when Delaney weaved his way through the MacCumahills defence and struck a fine goal.

Henderson and Shay Grieve swapped points as Eunan’s led by 2-12 to 0-6 at the break.

Eunan’s threw on two big guns in Cathal O’Brien and Kevin Kealy on the resumption as Henderson opened the scoring with another pointed free.

James O’Donnell and Russell Forde replied with two points for the home side and O’Brien added another while Henderson responded with a pointed free.

Brendan Gaffey got the winners’ third and final goal when he first-timed the sliotar to the Twin Town’s sides net to put them into a 3-14 to 0-9 lead.

Visiblity was now very poor as MacCumhaills upped their game and Darren McGowan booted the sliotar to the Eunan’s net after good work by Dean Hannigan.

Gavin Forde pointed for Eunan’s before Hannigan drove through the Eunan’s defence for a second goal. Conor Grieve and Gavin Forde got the final scores for Eunan’s.

St Eunan’s scorers: Gavin Forde 1-3; Fergal Delaney 1-2; Brendan Gaffey 1-1; Russell Forde 0-4; James O’Donnell 0-2; Shay Grieve 0-2; John Kealy 0-1; Matt Ahern 0-1; Cathal O’Brien 0-1; Pearse Glenn 0-1.

MacCumhaills scorers: Lee Henderson 0-6,6f; Dean Hannigan 1-1; Darren McGowan 1-0; Jamie De Ward 0-1; Dan Donnelly 0-1,1f.

St Eunan’s: Cian Hennessy; Conor Parke, Lorcan Heavey, Sean Halvey; James O’Donnell, Kieran Larkin, Oisin Randles; Fergal Delaney, Cormac Finn; Matt Ahern, Shay Grieve, Russell Forde; John Kealy, Gavin Forde, Brendan Gaffey. 

Subs Cathal O’Brien and Kevin Kealy for John Kealy and Matt Ahern (ht), David Horgan for Russell Forde (42); Pearse Glenn for Brenan Gaffey (46) Conor McVeigh for Lorcan Heavey (54).

MacCumhaills: Dylan Laverty; Conor Murphy, Aaron Toner, Peter Byrne; Jacob Malone, John Anthony Chambers, Sean Brady Devaney; Conor Griffin, Jamie De Ward; Rory Doherty, Fintan Griffin, Dan Donnelly; Lee Henderson, Dean Hannigan, Darren McGowan. 

Subs: Anthony Patton for Jamie De Ward (36), Davitt Brady Flynn and Rian McBrearty for Lee Henderson and Dean Hannigan (58).

Referee: James Callaghan (Setanta)