Dungloe and Termon content as both advance to knockout stages
Dungloe and Termon dug deep at different times to earn a share of the points that saw them both through to the knockout stages of the Michael Murphy SFC following Sunday’s hard-fought draw at the Burn Road.
Termon 2-17 Dungloe 3-14
The visitors had to come from ten points down at half-time, while Termon twice found themselves behind late on in what was a keenly contested encounter played in testing conditions of strong wind and rain.
The locals played with the elements in the first half but found themselves chasing the game at the end of the opening quarter when an Aaron Neilly goal, 12 minutes into the game, propelled the men from Rosses Park into a 1-4 to 0-5 lead.
The sides had been level twice in the opening ten minutes, with the lead changing hands on three occasions. Ryan McFadden, John James Sweeney and Enda McCormick, with the first of his two-point scores, hit the early Termon points.
Daire Gallagher, Aaron Neilly, Dylan Sweeney and Conor Greene hit the target for Dungloe.
Dungloe still led by two, 1-5 to 0-6, with ten minutes remaining in the opening half. But in an amazing eight-minute spell, the locals chalked up 1-9 without response to go in 1-15 to 1-5 ahead at the half-time break.
The Termon revival was sparked by a McCormick goal when, in the sticky conditions, he found himself in behind the last line of the Dungloe defence and gave Damian McGowan no chance from close range.
McGowan had pulled off a brilliant one-handed save to deny Termon an opening goal. McCormick’s goal edged his side into a three-point advantage.
Patrick Fegan, from a close-in free, stretched the Termon lead out to four points before McCormick, Ryan McFadden and McCormick again landed three two-point scores for the ten-point half-time advantage.
But a Conor Greene goal two minutes into the new half, followed by quick-fire points from Darren Curran, Sean McGee - a two-pointer - and Luke Clerkin, saw Dungloe trim the Termon lead back to two points before Ryan McFadden, with a close-in free, raised the locals’ first flag of the second half.
That was on 42 minutes. But three Dungloe points without response tied up the game at 2-13 to 1-16 with well over a quarter of an hour to go.
Termon fans were celebrating a second goal shortly after when Aaron Reid got a flick to a long McCormick ball into the Dungloe goalmouth.
Termon were now back in front again, 2-16 to 2-13, with a little over ten minutes remaining.
But Dungloe were not finished and it was all square again two minutes later when Ryan Connors was quickest to react to a high ball into the Termon goal area, smashing the ball to the back of the Termon net.
Seconds later, Dungloe were up by one again after Conor Greene pointed under pressure. But in a frenetic closing five minutes, Enda McCormick tied up the game for one last time.
Dungloe played the closing few minutes with 14 men when Oisin Bonner, just after coming on, was shown a black card by referee James Connors.
The result means Dungloe retained their place in the top four and a place in the quarter-finals, while a share of the points was enough for Termon to book a place in the preliminary quarter-finals and a local derby clash away to Glenswilly.
Termon scorers: Enda McCormick 1-5, 2 ‘45s’, 2tp; Ryan McFadden 0-5, 1 ‘45’, 1f; John James Sweeney 0-3, 1tp; Patrick Fegan 0-2, 1f; Jack Alcorn 0-2, 1tp; Aaron Reid 1-0.
Dungloe scorers: Conor Greene 1-2; Aaron Neely 1-1; Ryan Connors 1-0; Shaun McGee 0-2, 1tp; Daire Gallagher 0-2; Aaron Ward 0-2, 1tp; Luke Clerkin 0-2; Darren Curran, Matthew Ward and Dylan Sweeney 0-1 each.
Termon: Emmett Maguire; Conor Cassidy, Oisín Cassidy, Cormac Brady; Patrick Fegan, Cormac Gallagher, Jack Alcorn; Oisín Harkin, Bobby McGettigan; John James Sweeney, Cian McMenamin, Ryan McFadden; Daire McDaid, Aaron Reid, Enda McCormick.
Subs: Ruairi Connaghan for McMenamin (40), Kevin McGettigan for Reid (47), Shea Boyle for McDaid (48), Aiden Sweeney for O. Cassidy (55), Cian McMenamin for Harkin (57).
Dungloe: Damien McGowan; Mark Curran, Aaron Ward, Jason McBride; Aaron Neely, Conor O’Donnell, Karl Magee; Darren Curran, Matthew Ward; Dylan Sweeney, Ryan Connors, Luke Clerkin; Shaun McGee, Conor Greene, Daire Gallagher.
Subs: Christopher O’Donnell for Clerkin (47), Danny McCready for Gallagher (49), Barry Curran for Connors (55), Patrick O’Donnell for McGee (57), Oisín Bonner for Magee (58).
Referee: James Connors (St Eunan’s)