A rousing second-half display saw Donegal roar to a 3-12 to 0-11 victory over Galway at Croke Park.

Trailing by a point six minutes into the second half and having gone almost half an hour without a score, the winners stepped on the afterburners to outscore their opponents by 2-8 to 0-4 after the break.

With 25,655 spectators at HQ for today's Qualifier doubleheader, Donegal dug deep to set up a quarter-final date with Mayo next weekend. Colm McFadden, Odhran MacNiallais, Mark McHugh and the inimitable Michael Murphy were all superb. Ryan McHugh's goal on the hour was a thing of real beauty.

The winners made a fabulous start, with McFadden, Patrick McBrearty and Frank McGlynn rampant, and McBrearty's sixth-minute major had them ahead by four points at the midway stage in the first half. But Galway reeled off four unanswered points in the second quarter to go in level at the break, 0-7 to 1-4.

Despite speculation to the contrary, captain Michael Murphy started for last year's All-Ireland finalists. Rory Gallagher made three changes to his starting XV, with Eamonn Doherty, Martin O'Reilly and Hugh McFadden coming in for Anthony Thompson, Martin McElhinney and Christy Toye.

Danny Cummins opened the scoring inside the first minute but points from MacNiallais and McFadden saw the lead change hands before the latter picked out McBrearty, who rifled to the corner of the net in the sixth minute: 1-2 to 0-1.

Gary Sice (free) and Tom Flynn closed the gap before McFadden bagged his second and McGlynn conjured a second score for McBrearty: 1-4 to 0-3 as we went into the second quarter. Bizarrely, Donegal were roundly booed for keeping the ball when Galway had all 15 men back in their own half.

The Connacht men then mustered a great revival to outscore their opponents by four points to nil in the second quarter: Sice converted his second and third frees either side of an Adrian Varley fisted effort and captain Paul Conroy lofted over an inspirational point a minute from the short whistle.

After Donegal had struck three wides, Varley's free edged Galway ahead in the 41st minute; a converted Murphy free represented Donegal's first score in some 27 minutes and MacNiallais followed up with another one immediately as they wrested back the lead.

Murphy caught the ball and turned to lash over a trademark score to leave two between the teams with 20 minutes left. Sice and McFadden traded frees; MacNiallais's third score left three in it with twelve minutes remaining, 1-9 to 0-9.

The match was settled as a contest in the 60th minute when Ryan McHugh doubled the gap with his side's second three-pointer after great work from McFadden and Murphy: 2-9 to 0-9. Substitute Leo McLoone added to the winners' tally after Comer pulled back a free.

Sub Shane Walsh and Murphy (free) traded points and there was time for the superb McFadden to grab himself another point and then lay on the pass for his side's third goal, which was planted in the net in stoppage time by substitute Toye.

Donegal are back in business!

Donegal - P Durcan; P McGrath, N McGee, E McGee; R McHugh (1-0), E Doherty, F McGlynn; N Gallagher, H McFadden; M O'Reilly, O MacNiallais (0-3), M McHugh; P McBrearty (1-1), M Murphy (0-3, 2f), C McFadden (0-4, 1f). Subs: M McElhinney for M O'Reilly, A Thompson for E McGee, Declan Walsh for P McGrath (BC), L McLoone (0-1) for P McBrearty, C Toye (1-0) for H McFadden, David Walsh for C McFadden.

Galway - B O'Donoghue; J Duane, F Hanley, C Sweeney; L Silke, G O'Donnell, G Bradshaw; F O Curraoin, T Flynn (0-1); G Sice (0-5f), P Conroy (0-1), M Lundy; A Varley (0-1), D Comer (0-1f), D Cummins (0-1). Subs: S Walsh (0-1) for A Varley, P Sweeney for P Conroy, P Og Griofa for D Cummins, S Denvir for M Lundy, M Martin for T Flynn, E Tierney for G Sice.

Referee - E Kinsella.

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