Honours even as Galway reel in Donegal in Letterkenny

Donegal and Galway played out an entertaining draw in O'Donnell Park, Letterkenny but Donegal will rue 13 wides.

The home side led by six at one stage in the first half and by three at half-time but it took them almost 32 minutes to raise a flag in the second period as Galway slowly cut the margin and went two ahead.

Donegal finally got going and in the end a draw was probably a fair result.

On a day borrowed from summer, the sides were evenly matched in the first quarter as they shared six points. It took nine minutes for the first score to arrive as both sides played it safe.

Finally Cathal Sweeney burst through from half back to open Galway’s account.

Conor O’Donnell replied immediately. Matthew Tierney after being short from a 45-metre free got a second chance from a '45’ and made no mistake while Oisin Gallen clipped over Donegal’s reply.

Peter Cooke and Jamie Brennan also traded points by the 17th minute, but then Donegal opened a gap. Conor O’Donnell had claims for a penalty for a tug before Caolan McGonagle and Shaun Patton (45m free) put Donegal two in front.

It got better on 26 minutes when a high ball from Conor O’Donnell dropped short and caused confusion in the Galway goal. ‘Keeper Connor Gleeson fisted it up in the air and John Daly was penalised for throwing the ball clear. From the penalty Oisin Gallen’s effort was parried by Gleeson but had just enough power to get over the line.

The reply was immediate for Galway with just 43 seconds between the Donegal goal and Matthew Tierney firing low past Shaun Patton.

The only other score of the opening half came courtesy of one of Shaun Patton’s long kick-outs which found Michael Langan and he fired over from just inside the 45-metre line.

Half-time: Donegal 1-6, Galway