Senior footballers draw against Donegal

DONEGAL 2-5 DUBLIN 1-8

Dublin recovered from the hammerblow of conceding two goals inside a minute later in the first half to draw with Donegal in Sunday's NFL Division 1 encounter in Ballybofey before an attendance of over 10,000.

The Dubs looked set to edge out their opponents before a soft free in the second minute of added time afforded Michael Murphy the opportunity to level the scoring.

In underfoot conditions that did not lend themselves to great football Donegal opened the scoring inside the first minute when midfielder Jason McGee split the posts.

However, the Ulster side did not score again for over 25 minutes when Ciarán Thompson converted a free after Dublin had scored five unanswered points.

Shane Carthy with the left from near the endline got Dublin going before Dean Rock (free), Ciarán Kilkenny, Conor McHugh and Niall Scully, following good vision by Brian Fenton, propelled their side into a 0-5 to 0-1 lead.

But Donegal concluded the half in amazing fashion with goals form Jason McGee, after Stephen Cluxton could only parry his initial effort, and Ryan McHugh to lead 2-2 to 0-5 at the break.

Four minutes into the second half Michael Murphy put Donegal four clear and Dublin needed to lift their game.

Two Dean Rock frees, following fouls on Jack McCaffrey and then Paul Flynn, cut into the deficit before Dublin put together an incisive hand-passing move that culminated with Niall Scully driving the ball to the net to see his side 1-7 to 2-3 clear.

Dean Rock saw a free come back off the upright in the 59th minute before a fine David Byrne point put Dublin two clear with eight minutes of normal time remaining.

But Donegal rallied back with frees from Thompson and Murphy to earn a share of the spoils.

SCORERS - Donegal: J McGee 1-1, R McHugh 1-0, C Thompson (0-2f), M Murphy (0-2f) 0-2 each. Dublin: N Scully 1-1, D Rock 0-3 (0-3f), S Carthy, C Kilkenny, C McHugh, D Byrne 0-1 each.

DONEGAL: MA McGinley; P McGrath, N McGee, C Ward; R McHugh, P Brennan, E Gallagher; J McGee, M Murphy; F McGlynn, M Carroll, M O'Reilly; C Thompson, E McHugh, J Brennan. Subs: H McFadden for J Brennan (40), D O'Connor for P Brennan (46), E Doherty for Carroll (57), S McBrearty for E McHugh (63),

DUBLIN: S Cluxton; P McMahon, M Fitzsimons, E Lowndes; D Daly, J McCaffrey, J Small; B Fenton, C Reddin; S B Carthy (St Vincent's), C Kilkenny, N Scully; D Rock, E O'Gara, C McHugh. Subs: P Flynn for Carthy (42), MD Macauley for Reddin (42), K McManamon for O'Gara (44), D Byrne for McCaffrey (57), J Whelan for McHugh (62), E Ó Conghaile for Daly (69).

REF: C Branagan (Down).