Ladies All-Ireland SFC: Superb Tyrone exact revenge on Donegal with 3-12 to 3-9 win

Tyrone produced an outstanding display at Cusack Park to get the better of Donegal in Group Four of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.

Chloe McCaffrey and Maria Canavan finished with a combined tally of 1-8 as the 2018 intermediate champions defied the odds to claim victory.

Geraldine McLaughlin led the way for Donegal with an impressive 2-5.

However Maxi Curran’s outfit will now need to defeat Mayo next week to keep their Brendan Martin Cup dream alive.

Having been defeated by Donegal in the last four of the Ulster Championship last month, Tyrone set out to make amends and surged into an early six-point lead.

By contrast, Donegal’s start was sluggish before McLaughlin finally opened her side’s account with a pointed free.

The Termon forward continued to pose problems for Tyrone but her first half goal was not enough to put the Ulster champions on top at the interval, with Niamh O’Neill, McCaffrey and Aoibhinn McHugh all pointing for the Red Hands to give them a two point lead.

After Niamh McLaughlin had cut Donegal’s deficit to a minimum, Tyrone blitzed their opponent, scoring 2-1 without reply.

Substitute Mallon was on hand to fire home from a short free before Niamh Hughes’ speculative strike also raised a green flag.

McLaughlin continued to keep her side in touch, scoring 1-1 in reply.

Although the pressure was now back on Tyrone, they gave themselves significant breathing space with unanswered scores from McCaffrey and two from Canavan.

As expected, Donegal ramped up the tension in a frantic finale as Niamh McLaughlin’s penalty narrowed the gap to two points.

However, Tyrone held firm and McCaffrey’s last-minute free put the seal on their magnificent triumph.

Tyrone: S Lynch; C Hunter, J Barrett, C Conway; E Brennan, T McLaughlin, N McGirr (0-1); EJ Gervin (0-1), S McCarroll; N Hughes (1-0), M Canavan (0-5, 4f), A McHugh (0-1); N O’Neill (0-1), C Kelly, C McCaffrey (1-3, 1f).

Subs: M Mallon (1-0), S Byrne for Hughes, S Sheerin for O’Neill.

Donegal: A McColgan; AM McGlynn, E McGinley, N McLaughlin; T Doherty, E Gallagher, N Carr; K Herron, N Boyle; N Hegarty (0-1), A Boyle Carr, N McLaughlin (1-1); K Guthrie (0-2, 2f), G McLaughlin (2-5, 2f), M Ryan.

Subs: K Keeney, S McGroddy, N McDonald

Referee: Barry Redmond (Wexford)