Donegal hold onto their senior football status with six-point win over Leitrim 

Donegal have retains their SFC status after a six-point win over Leitrim at a boiling-hot Kilcoyne Park in Tubbercurry on Saturday.

James Daly’s side spent most of the game with a comfortable lead, courtesy of two goals in the first half and a superb display of point-kicking from Eva Gallagher up front. 

Meanwhile, a defiant Leitrim battled hard, engineering a late comeback that was snuffed out when a penalty,  which could have brought them back within touching distance, was saved with just a minute to go.

Donegal posed a difficult challenge for Leitrim; they were a young, dynamic, defensive, and well-organised team who showed the game management of players who had been in senior-level competition for a long time. 

Donegal certainly deserved the win that they eked out, though Leitrim will feel that the game was there for the taking, they showed how dangerous they are in attack and their spirit, but they played within themselves for too much of the game and missed too many chances in clutch moments.

From the start Donegal looked the more comfortable of the two sides, showing impressive pace in transition and giving an early glimpse of the lethal forward line that would torment Leitrim throughout with Eva Gallagher opened the scoring with the first of the nine points she would hit in the game.

But Muireann Devaney - Leitrim’s driving force on the day - responded a minute later, converting a free she had won herself. She followed it up with another, this time won off a turnover and converted by her Glencar Manorhamilton clubmate Ailbhe Clancy.

Gallagher hit another point for Donegal, and the Ulster side began to find big gaps in the Leitrim defence while pinning them back in their own half with an aggressive press.

Leitrim have conceded a huge amount of goals in the championship, and more looked on the cards from the jump today as their defence creaked under the Donegal pressure, and Jasmine Maye was forced to make a vital diving intervention to deny a Donegal goal chance in the seventh minute.

But a minute later, Donegal found the breakthrough. They broke with pace and numbers from deep, as Leitrim failed to track runners and left their defence exposed. A quick exchange of handpasses ended with Susanne White rocketing the ball past Leitrim goalkeeper Michelle Guckian from close range.

Donegal kept Leitrim under pressure but failed to take full advantage in the following minutes, hitting a number of wides. Gallagher eventually added a looping point from 30 metres. By then, Leitrim had settled and responded with a composed attack, finished off by a strong Leah Fox point.

Donegal continued to move the ball well and added further scores through Gallagher, White, and Niamh Boyle around the first water break.

Then, as this Leitrim team so often does, they exploded into life.

A early kick inside saw Devaney, Laura O’Dowd, and Leah Fox combine before a clever ball over the top found O’Dowd in enough space to slot a shot past Clare Friel and a retreating defender, bringing Leitrim back within two with ten minutes left in the half.

Suddenly, Leitrim were full of belief. Leah Fox hit a low bullet of a point from 30 metres in the middle of a crowded Donegal defence.

A minute later, Gallagher settled a rattled Donegal side with another crucial point, though Jasmine Maye was agonisingly close to blocking the shot. Down the other end, Devaney won a free kick, converted again by the left-footed Clancy.

With five minutes to go in the half, Donegal struck again. Breaking up the field with pace and precision, they weaved through the Leitrim defence before Jodie McFadden fired into the bottom corner.

Leitrim dug deep and thought they had found the perfect response when Devaney picked up a breaking ball on the Donegal 13 and powered through a swarm of defenders to finish to the net - but the goal was ruled out for a foul in the build-up.

The heat during the game was brutal, with water breaks required, and it arguably favoured a younger and more dynamic looking Donegal team.

That said, it wasn’t any cooler between the players as both sides were ferocious in the tackle, leaving their mark wherever they could.

Donegal took early control of the second half with points from Boyle and White before they were forced to replace their captain, Róisín Rodgers, after she suffered a heavy knock contesting a kickout.

It didn’t halt their scoring, however, with Boyle adding another point. Devaney responded with a free to keep Leitrim in touch, but the gap had stretched to seven.

The next ten minutes saw Gallagher notch two more scores, with Devaney hitting three points as both teams showed signs of fatigue from the heat and relentless running.

With about seven minutes to go, Leitrim exploded into life once again. The Green and Gold hit three points to one - a well-taken shot from Fox and two excellently worked and converted frees from Devaney.

Now just four points adrift, Leitrim had belief again. They put Donegal under serious pressure, and a comeback looked imminent when Fox spotted Devaney making a darting run across the square. She found her with an inch-perfect pass, but Devaney was pulled down a metre from goal.

She stepped up to take the penalty that would have brought Leitrim within one point with just over a minute to play. She struck it low and hard to the right - but Donegal’s Clare Friel guessed correctly and made a superb save.

It wasn’t to be. Donegal went up the field and added two late points through Gallagher and White, sealing their survival in senior football for another year.

Donegal scorers: Eva Gallagher 0-9, Susanne White 1-2, Jodie McFadden 1-0, Mia Bennett 0-2, Katie Dowds, Niamh Boyle 0-1 each.

Leitrim scorers: M Devaney 0-7 (6f), L O’Dowd 1-0, L Fox 0-3, A Clancy 0-2 (1f).

Donegal: C Friel; S McFadden, A Temple Asokuh, S McFeeley; B McLaughlin, E McGinley, C Gillespie; R Rodgers, M Bennett; S White, K Dowds, F McManamon; E Gallagher, J McFadden, N Boyle. Subs: R McColgan for Rodgers (36), A Caulfield for Gillespie (40), E Boyle for McFadden (45), A McGranaghan for Bennett (52).

Leitrim: M Guckian; J Maye, C Tyrrell, E Quigley; D Beirne, C Owens, R McIntyre; N Tighe, A Quinn; A Gilmartin, V Egan, A Clancy; L Fox, M Devaney, L O’Dowd. Subs: S Quinn for Egan (40), C Dolan for A Quinn (46), L McKeon for Quigley (52), E Shanley for Beirne (54).

Referee: Philip Conway (Armagh).