Donegal beat Wicklow in qualifier
Wicklow 0-12 Donegal 0-16
Manager Brian McEniff may have been banished to the stands in Aughrim but his Donegal side still came through their Bank of Ireland SFC first round qualifier against Wicklow, if not with flying colours.
McEniff was handed down a pitchside ban by the GAA's Central Disciplinary Committee during the week, and although Wicklow rattled his charges - especially in the first half - the Tir Chonaill men pulled through with Stephen McDermott and Brendan Devenney leading the way.
Devenney, in at corner forward in an unchanged line-up from Donegal's Ulster SFC quarter-final replay loss to Armagh, had a second-half goal ruled out for over-carrying but came into his own towards the end of the first half.
Hugh Kenny's Wicklow side, narrow Leinster first round losers to Kildare, were backed by a 6,000-strong home support for this one, and were 0-3 to 0-1, and 0-5 to 0-2 in front of their Ulster visitors in the early stages.
Paul Earls notched two well-flighted frees while Ciaran Hyland, Thomas Harney and Wayne O'Gorman were also on target for Wicklow as they moved three points in front after 19 wind-assisted minutes.
Donegal then awoke, and levelled things up at 0-5 apiece through scores from Brian Roper, Christy Toye and Devenney on 25 minutes.
Their teenage goalkeeper Michael Boyle was forced into a brilliant one-handed save from O'Gorman as the half progressed, but Donegal tagged on two points to one in the closing minutes for a 0-7 to 0-6 interval buffer.
McEniff's men added another three - Devenney, McDermott and McFadden (free) - immediately after the restart but white flags from Jonathan Daniels, Nathan Glynn and Gary Duffy kept the home side within touching distance.
Although Devenney had his goal ruled out, points from McDermott and McFadden (free) again pushed Donegal 0-13 to 0-10 in front and Devenney (0-2) and McFadden were on target again in the closing minutes to send the visitors through to tonight's second round draw.
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