Inish Times Match Report:
Buncrana owed their victory over Carndonagh in this Inishowen derby to two factors. The accurate right boot of Oran Doherty and the physical nature of their defending which left several Carndonagh attackers on the deck requiring attention.
Carndonagh had the advantage of a strong wind at their backs in the first half and aided by this they went score for score with their more fancied opponents for much of the opening quarter. As half time approached with the scores tied at 0-04 each Buncrana scored the only goal of the game. A quick taken free by Paul McGonagle to Eddie Grant and Grant's attempted shot dropped short but Barry Bradley was on hand to fist the ball in. (Two points here - 1.The free should never have been awarded and 2.Bradley was in the square before the ball.) After the goal, Gerard Crossan, the Carndonagh keeper, argued long and hard about point 2 with little success. Carndonagh came back at their opponents, first Gary McLaughlin hit over a fine left-footed score and then Kevin Doherty? used the wind to his advantage to hoist over a point to leave the minimum between the teams, Buncrana 1-04 Carndonagh 0-06.
Carndonagh made one substitution at halftime, Michael O'Donnell replacing Shane Kelly at halfback. Carndonagh were always going to be up against it in the second half, and so it proved. Oran Doherty did the most damage. He started with a fine score after some good possession play by Buncrana. All of his scores came from the same area of the pitch wide on the left 20-30 metres out. Unfortunately for Carn, he was giving his marker the slip with ease. Oran played in Stephen Rogers for a score before adding another himself to see Buncrana lead 1-07 to 0-06. The game could have been out of reach moments later when Kieran Condy fisted a long ball goalwards only for Crossan to make a fine save at full stretch.
Buncrana's agressive tackling left the Carndonagh players twitchy in possession but the frees that often resulted kept Carn in the hunt. In the final quarter of the Carndonagh came into the game more and Gerard Doherty especially standing out at midfield. With the score 1-09 to 0-08 to Buncrana, Steven Rogers delivered a devastating hit to Seamus McLaughlin(JM) as the Carn man surged upfield with the ball. There was a lengthy stoppage for treatment to Seamus, who would take no further part in the game.
Moments later there was an even worse challenge from a Buncrana player. When Dave McConnell ran 15 metres to deiver a forearm smash to Patrick McLaughlin(M). Surprisingly McConnell didn't stick around at the scene of the crime and escaped any punishment from the referee for this premeditated foul. Right at the death with Carn trailing by 4 points, Donnacha Gallagher got open in front of goal about 20 metres out but the ball went over the bar instead of under.
One final note: There was 13 yellow cards and 2 red in the Donegal V Roscommon game the previous day, Sunday March 31st. There could have easily been as many cards in this game for the Buncrana team on its own.