Round-up: Allianz Hurling League D3 action
Donegal senior hurling team manager Mickey McCann. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
Allianz Hurling League Division Three
Donegal 2-35 Fermanagh 0-9
Tyrone 2-18 Louth 0-16
Donegal will be very hard stopped in Division Three of the Allianz Hurling League on the basis of a sensational start to the campaign, with a landslide win over Fermanagh this afternoon in Letterkenny backing up their win over Tyrone in Round One.
From the first whistle to the last, Mickey McCann’s charges meant business at O’Donnell Park, Gerard Gilmore landing the first of his dozen white flags before the opening minute ran out.
An injury to wing back Gavin Browne and no clear goal chance were the only negatives to a half where Fermanagh didn’t score for 28 minutes, and it finished 0-19 to 0-2 at the interval.
Fermanagh did grab the first point on the resumption through Danaan McKeogh, but nine on the bounce from Donegal left it 0-28 to 0-3 by the 54th minute, and while the Erne County picked off a few more scores, three from Eamon Magee, the deficit continued to widen as Donegal struck two late goals.
Gilmore (0-12), John Kealy (1-5), Liam McKinney (0-4), Ronan McDermott (1-0) and Peter Kelly (0-3) topped the scoring charts for Donegal, who now go into their bye week.
As if to further frank Donegal’s form, Tyrone bounced back from their loss to their neighbours with a successful road trip to Darver, Pierce Mullin their match winning hero as he came off the bench to score two goals in their 2-18 to 0-16 win.
Most of the scoring was done in the first half. Tyrone hit the ground running with five points in a row, three from Aidan Kelly, but Louth had a nice spread of scorers in the opening half, not to mention a strong contribution from Darren Geoghegan (who finished with 0-11) to stay in touch at the interval.
Mullin got the first of his two goals three minutes after coming on as a half-time substitute and the second with 10 minutes to play, while in-between the scores dried up in what was a tense battle.
A late red card for full-forward Kiefer Morgan was a setback for Tyrone in advance of what now looks like a crucial showdown with Wicklow in Omagh next Sunday.
