Donegal Senior Hurling Championship Final

SETANTA 2-19 ST EUNAN'S 2-13

By Chris McNulty

Super Setanta are the hurling kings of Tir Chonaill once more after goals by Marc Devine and Josh McGee fired the Crossroads team to a third title in four years.

For St Eunan’s, the deja vu is becoming an all too familiar feeling as the Letterkenny hurlers have been the beaten opponent for Setanta in each of those finals.

Two late goals by Kevin Kealy made this one look tighter than it was.

Setanta were utterly dominant and a 1-13 to 0-5 lead at half-time meant that the black and green ribbons could stay on the Munster Cup for another 12 months.

After just two minutes, Setanta had the ball in the net as Devine pucked home after taking receipt of Niall Cleary’s pinpoint pass.

McGee was denied a second through superb Cian Hennessy save, but Setanta tacked on points from Declan Coulter and Gerard Gilmore to move five ahead.

The excellent Gilmore hit four first half points as they led by 11 at the changeover.

Davin Flynn showed that Setanta didn’t decide to lift the feet from the gas at the outset of part two.

Even when St Eunan’s - for whom Conor O’Grady hit nine points - dared to mount something of a comeback, when they hit four-in-a-row, Setanta knocked in 1-1 in an immediate riposte.

Devine fed McGee and he smashed past Hennessy in style for the second goal in the 37th minute.

Flynn arched over and Setanta had a 2-17 to 0-10 advantage.

Kealy converted a goal for St Eunan’s 13 minutes from the end while Ciaran Bellew, the Setanta goalkeeper, saved a 55th minute penalty by Sean McVeigh

Kealy bagged a second goal in injury time, but the damage had long since been inflicted as Setanta had made this one safe a long way from home.

Scorers for Setanta: Davin Flynn 0-7 (1f), Declan Coulter 0-5 (3f, 1 ’65), Gerard Gilmore 0-4, Marc Devine, Josh McGee 1-0 each, Danny Cullen, Richard Kee, Bernard Lafferty 0-1 each

Scorers for St Eunan’s: Conor O’Grady 0-9 (8f), Kevin Kealy 2-1, Ryan Hilferty 0-2, Cormac Finn 0-1

SETANTA: Ciaran Bellew; Alan McConnell, Martin Bonner; Denim Rowan, Danny Cullen, Niall Cleary; Richard Kee, Michael Donoghue; Gerard Gilmore, Declan Coulter, Bernard Lafferty; Marc Devine, Josh McGee, Davin Flynn. Subs: Ruairi Campbell for Devine (48), Conor McGettigan and Kevin Campbell for Coulter and Tourish (51), Simon McMenamin for Cleary (58), Dean Harvey for McGee (60).

ST EUNAN'S: Cian Hennessy; Brian MacIntyre, Adie Gaffney; Colm Flood, Steven Doherty, Brendan Horgan; Cormac Finn, Sean Halvey; Ryan Hilferty, Sean McVeigh, Kevin Kealy; Conor Kelly, Conor O’Grady, Matt Ahern. Subs: Eugene Organ for Kelly (half-time), Conor McVeigh for Ahern (40)

Referee: Trevor Maloney (Buncrana).