Dr McKenna Cup, Group A
Antrim 1-9 Donegal 0-15
ANTRIM'S involvement in this year's Dr McKenna Cup may have come to an end at Kelly Park in Portglenone on Saturday, but it took late scores from Donegal to finally put this game to bed as Declan Bonner's men made it into the last four.
Paddy McBrearty was in exception form for the Tír Chonaill men, kicking seven points from play in a virtuoso performance that proved the difference between the teams as the victors were just able to find their scores a little bit easier.
Conditions were not ideal for both teams with the winter dew and pre-match drizzle leaving footing extremely slippery and the greasy ball contributed to Antrim's goal straight after half-time from Conor Murray when Donegal goalkeeper Shaun Patton stepped over his line, but while Antrim got on terms on a couple of occasions in the second period, they were unable to hit the front and when chasing a leveller deep in stoppage time trailing by one, they were hit for a pair of late points that wrapped up this game.
While the effort from Antrim could not be questioned with good energy and ability to turn possession over in the tackle, manager Enda McGinley felt the performance was well short of what it needs to be and has challenged his side to eradicate the basic errors that resulted in attacking opportunities come and go with Donegal's expert ability to break and punish a major factor in the outcome.
"It wasn't good enough," he stressed.
"There were too many simple mistakes for my liking, but to their credit, they worked really hard again today.
"In early season, teams aren't going to be playing brilliant football. The skills aren't perfect, the runs and link-ups aren't perfect at this time of year, so you are looking at effort, boys putting it in and tackling hard.
"I thought our tackling side was really good, but our work with ball in hand needs to be better as that's going to be typical of the test will will face in Division Three."
Peadar Mogan skips clear of Peter Healy and Dermott McAleese
Antrim owned the ball from the throw-in, going through the phases and recycling against a packed Donegal defence as they probed for an opening and they were rewarded after 90 seconds when Tomás McCann popped over.
However, this would have to was it a further 28 minutes to add to this tally as they just couldn't get through the visitors' defence despite owning the ball for long stretches.
Donegal were content to absorb the pressure, sometimes playing with 15 behind the ball and break at pace and from their first, Paddy McBrearty curled over an equaliser.
Caolan McGonigle galloped through to take a pass and kick Donegal into an eight minute lead, but they too were facing a packed defence when they got their hands on the ball, although this was less often that Antrim who were playing the game on the periphery of the scoring zone as they passed back and forth, but were treated with a sea of green and gold jerseys.
Donegal were just that much sharper when they did get on the offensive and McBrearty kicked his second when cutting ing on his left and then the raiding Peadar Mogan played a one-two and split the posts to help the Tír Chonaill men into a 0-4 to 0-1 lead at the water break.
Antrim seemed to up the tempo upon the resumption of play, but the chances were few and far between although a couple of efforts did drift wide.
One did appear to go wide when Caoilan Ward curled a shirt from the left, but it was adjudged to have crept just inside to extend the gap to four, but Antrim pulled one back as they turned the ball over and Jamie Gribbin profited to gather inside and score and leave it 0-5 to 0-2 at the half.
Kevin Small looks for a way around Ciaran Thompson 
The Saffrons could not have had a better start to the second half as one of their three replacements at the break, Conor Murray, sent a shot in that dropped short and looked a straightforward gather for Patton, but the Donegal goalkeeper could not prevent it from creeping over the line as he tried to gather.
The Donegal response to this was excellent as they rattled off a pair of scores in quick succession from Charlie McGuinness and Conor O'Donnell as both sids began to empty their bench in what was a procession of substitutions in the second period.
Antrim remained in touch throughout as the sides began to go score for score with a Tomás McCann free cancelled out by one from McBrearty, while Odhran Eastwood's pointed free was replied to by one from play by McBrearty after Donegal has their best chance of a goal when Ciaran Thompson raced through, but sent his rasping drive well wide of the target.
When Kevin Small kicked a beauty of a score with his left boot on the left of goal just before the water break, Antrim trailed by just 0-9 to 1-5 and they were back on terms early in the fourth quarter when Eastwood popped to Dermott McAleese who squeezed his shot between the posts from a tight angle.
However, just as before, Donegal always seemed to be able to find a reply and they hit he next three points from McBrearty, Jean McKelvey and Michael Langan to lead by as m any with eight to play and this gap remained as the game ticked into stoppage time after Ryan Murray free was cancelled out by McBrearty who fired over from deep after taking a pass from Michael Murphy.
Odhran Eastwood gets out in front of Odhran Doherty
There was no quit in this Antrim team as Eastwood converted a free and then Conor Murray dropped a shot over to leave the minimum in it, but Antrim just couldn't get their hands on the ball to try and engineer a leveller as Donegal retained possession and then with space to work into, Jamie Brennan raced clear to fist over and from a mistake at the kick-out, they won a free that McBreaty slotted over to seal victory.
"We knew coming up here it was going to be a good, competitive match," said Donegal manager, Declan Bonner.
"Antrim's well organised under Enda and that's what we got. First half, we wouldn't have been happy with the amount of turnovers we had, especially unforced errors, and got off to a poor start in the second half.
"After that, we controlled a lot of that game and it was good to get a lot of the senior players back on the pitch too."
ANTRIM: M Byrne; P McCormick, R Johnston J McAuley; P Healy, E McCabe, D McAleese (0-1); K Small (0-1), M McCann; R McCann, P Shivers, P McBride; R Murray (0-1 free), T McCann (0-2, 1 free), J Gribben (0-1).
Subs: J Laverty for R Johnston (30), D McEnhill for J Gribben (HT), C Murray (1-1) for P Shivers (HT), S McGarry for M McCann (HT), O Eastwood (0-2, both frees) for T McCann (45), J McCann for P McBride (48), M Johnston for K Small (55), B McCormick for P Healy (59), D McCormick for R McCann (59), E Hynds for R Murray (68), R Murray for D McCormick (70).
Blood sub: O Eastwood for R Murray (40, reversed 45)
DONEGAL: S Patton; C Ward (0-1), B McCole, O Doherty; T McClenaghan, E Ban Gallagher, E O'Donnell; C McGonagle (0-1), J McGee; P Mogan (0-1), C Thompson, S O'Donnell; P McBearty (0-7, 2 frees), C McGuinness (0-1), C O'Donnell (0-1).
Subs: P Brennan for B McCole (HT), J Brennan (0-1) for S O'Donnell (45), M Langan (0-1) for J McGee (47), J McKelvey (0-1) for E Ban Gallagher (47), O McFadden-Ferry for E O'Donnell (47), A Doherty for C O'Donnell (55), M Murphy for C McGuinness (55), E Doherty for C Thompson (68)
REFEREE: Niall McKenna (Monaghan)
