Donegal survived the second-half dismissal of Michael Murphy to edge out Cork by a point, 0-12 to 1-8, at Ballyshannon.

The Tir Chonail men had made a stunning start to the second half to surge into a double scores lead with five unanswered points, 0-10 to 0-5, when their talismanic captain was sent off after picking up a second yellow card in the 50th minute.

Boosted by their numerical superiority, the Leesiders struck their maiden score of the half from a Colm O'Neill free - Cork's first score in 28 minutes - which was cancelled out by Odhran McNiallais from a thumping 55-metre free from the hands.

Tomas Clancy's 56th minute goal really put the cat amongst the pigeons and a Brian Hurley point had the gap down to the minimum with 13 minutes left to play.
Patrick McBrearty's score gave the hosts some breathing space and, in a frantic finale, the 14 men held on for an important victory as the Rebel County were beaten for the first time in the 2015 national football league.

There was nothing to separate the teams during the course of a first half that ended all-square, 0-5 each. Indeed, so even was the battle that materialised that there were ten minutes without a score at either end in the run-up to the interval as both sides strained to get on top.

The hosts led by five points to four after 20 minutes, with Martin O'Reilly slotting three of their scores while Murphy chipped in with an eighth-minute free and Christy Toye was also on target early on.

Cork's opening two points came from O'Neill, while Colm O'Driscoll also found the target inside the opening quarter and Donncha O'Connor cancelled out Toye's point in the 18th minute.

The sides were level for the fourth time, 0-5 apiece, when Mark Collins smacked one over for the visitors in the 25th minute.

There were no further scores before the half-time whistle and the sides went in level at the break.

Rory Gallagher's charges made an electrified start to the second half as points from McBrearty (2), Murphy (2) and O'Reilly propelled them into a five-point lead. It was just enough as the Rebels were faced with the long journey home, empty-handed.

Donegal - P Durcan; E Doherty, N McGee, P McGrath; K Lacey, F McGlynn, R McHugh; N Gallagher, H McFadden; M McHugh, C Toye (0-1), O MacNiallais (0-1f); P McBrearty (0-3, 1f), M Murphy (0-3f), M O'Reilly (0-4). Subs: M McElhinney for H McFadden, C McFadden for C Toye, A Thompson for K Lacey, E McGee for E Doherty, J Gibbons for P McBrearty.

Cork - K O'Halloran; Tom Clancy, M Shields, J Loughrey; J O'Sullivan, E Cadogan, Tomas Clancy (1-0); F Goold, M Collins (0-1); C O'Driscoll, J O'Rourke, K O'Driscoll (0-1); C O'Neill (0-4f), D O'Connor (0-1f), B Hurley (0-1). Subs: C Dorman for J O'Sullivan, P Kerrigan for D O'Connor, P Kelly for C O'Driscoll, J Hayes for K O'Driscoll, D Og Hodnett for J O'Rourke.

Referee - J McQuillan.

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