Donegal 1-10 Dublin 0-13 Donegal will be playing their football in Division Two next season after being relegated from Division One after only managing a draw against Dublin at MacCumhaill Park today.
Referee Michael Duffy certainly won’t be the most popular man amongst Donegal supporters after he awarded Dublin a controversial last minute free to allow Dublin to level the scores.
Donegal went in three points ahead at the interval but Dublin matched Jim McGuinness’ team stride for stride in the second half to snatch a late draw.
With Kerry beating Tyrone at Healy Park, Donegal had to beat Dublin to stay in Division One.
With just two wins from seven league outings however, Donegal can have few complaints.
Donegal looked sharp early on and raced into a five point lead at one stage only for Dublin to chip back the lead to just two points at the break.
The game had to be delayed for up to 15 minutes as a crowd of over 8,000 fans filed into MacCumhaill Park for the game.
Mark McHugh got Donegal off to the perfect start when he put the ball over for a point for Donegal after just 23 seconds.
Donegal missed a couple of chances to go further ahead before Paul Mannion leveled from all of 35 yards for Dublin.
Colm McFadden gave Donegal a great opportunity to put some early daylight between the sides when he latched onto Paddy McBrearty’s through ball to find the back of the net to make it 1-1 to 0-1.
Paul Mannion tipped another long range effort over the Donegal crossbar to keep Dublin in touch and when Paddy Andrews added another for Dublin, there was just one point between them.
Donegal then enjoyed a good passage of play as the forwards worked hard to find angles.
Dublin tried to respond but used some cynical fouling to try to keep the Donegal forwards under control.
Paddy McBrearty made up for an earlier miss to fist over for a point while Michael Murphy and Colm McFadden also added another couple of frees to make it 1-5 to 0-3 to Donegal after 25 minutes.
Dublin are struggling up front and they look lost without target-man Bernard Brogan as Donegal looked the stronger team moving towards the interval.
Dublin grabbed another point back through O’Sullivan who burst through from midfield and a minute later from Andrews again to leave three points between the sides.
Andrews added another less than a minute later to leave just two points between the sides.
Ryan Bradley added another point to give Donegal a three point lead just as the half-time whistle blew.
Donegal stretched their lead when McBrearty slotted the ball over after a free was awarded to McHugh to make it 1-8 to 0-7.
Paddy Andrews and Paul Mannion continued to be the thorn in the side of Donegal as they chipped away with points in the second half.
With seven wides in the first half, Donegal were kicking themselves out of the game when they should have been further in front.
It was end-to-end stuff and a cracking game for the large crowd.
Paddy McBrearty had a solid game and kept two points between the sides to make it 1-9 to -10.
But you always sensed that Dublin would battle right to the bitter end.
Michael Murphy made it 1-10 to 0-11 when Rory Kavanagh, yellow-carded earlier on, won a free.
And you sensed Lady Luck could be looking towards Donegal when Paul Durcan pulled off a terrific save from Jason Whelan.
Jason McCaffrey left it a one point game a minute into injury time but with only seconds left, barring a disaster Donegal were staying in Division one.
That disaster struck just seconds later when substitute referee Michael Duffy adjudged Donegal had thrown a pass and gave Dublin a lifeline.
Paul Mannion, so clam all afternoon in front of the posts, put the ball over with ease and doomed Donegal to Division Two.