Antrim 1-10 Donegal 0-12 Tomas McCann silenced Ballybofey as Antrim secured a shock Ulster SFC quarter-final victory on Sunday afternoon. McCann was in excellent form from placed balls throughout the afternoon but it was his goal 11 minutes from the end which proved the game's decision score. The corner forward saw his initial effort blocked by Donegal netminder Paul Durcan, but he showed great composure to find the net at the second attempt and send the travelling support into raptures. That strike opened up a four-point lead for the Saffrons - and despite finding their stride to some degree, Donegal were unable to bridge that deficit. Colm McFadden halved the deficit with a brace of points, half-time substitute Christy Toye added another with five minutes left and Rory Kavanagh sent over a point at the death. Antrim held on dourly - they added just one point after McCann's goal - and Donegal were made to pay for their wastefulness on an afternoon when they racked up an unseemly 18 wides. The victory continues a memorable first season in the Saffrons hotseat for Liam Bradley, who steered Antrim to promotion from Division Four in the NFL. Nor did everything go the underdogs' way on the day - they lost goalkeeper Sean McGreevy to injury before the break, the netminder forced out after denying Conal Dunne with a brave stop. McCann, Aodhan Gallagher and Paddy Cunningham were in scoring form for Antrim early on but despite kicking ten first half wides, Donegal still led by one at the break (0-6 to 0-5), with teenager Michael Murphy's frees their chief source of scores. The home side maintained that margin for the first 15 minutes of the second half, but McCann edged Antrim into the lead and when the same player found the net the margin was suddenly four. Donegal chipped away but in truth they hardly deserved to deny Antrim, last year's Tommy Murphy Cup winners, a memorable first Ulster Championship win in six summers. Antrim - S McGreevy,C Brady, A McLean, D McCann,T Scullion, J Crozier, J Loughrey, M McCann (0-1, 1f), A Gallagher (0-1), T O'Neill, K Brady (0-1), N McKeever, P Cunningham (0-4, 3f), S Burke, T McCann (1-2, 1 '45). Subs - K O'Boyle (0-1) for D McCann (48), K Niblock for Burke (51), C Close for Brady (54), B Hasson for McKeever (63). Donegal - P Durcan, E McGee, N McGee, K Lacey, B Dunnion, K Cassidy, M McGuire, N Gallagher, B Boyle, C Bonner (0-1), M Hegarty, R Kavanagh (0-3), C McFadden (0-2, 2f), M Murphy (0-5, 3f, 1 '45), C Dunne. Subs - C Toye (0-1) for Dunnion (ht), B Roper for Hegarty (49), D walsh for Dunne (53), F McGlynn for Boyle (60) Ref - Padraig Hughes (Armagh). Tweet

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