Donegal are into the third round of the Qualifiers after beating Longford by 0-12 to 0-7 at Ballybofey.

The sides were deadlocked on five points apiece when the game turned on its head in the 49^th minute as the visitors lost James McGivney to a second yellow card.

With 9,915 in attendance, three David McGivney frees helped the underdogs into the interval with a narrow 0-4 to 0-3 lead.

There were no scores from play in the opening quarter as Robbie Smyth and David McGivney clipped over Longford frees either side of a Michael Murphy reply. David McGivney stretched the midlanders' advantage from another free in the 21^st minute and the game was 23 minutes old by the time Patrick McBrearty clipped over the opening score from play.

David McGivney's third free made it double scores with just three minutes left before the break but Martin McElhinney replied with the hosts' third point in the second minute of first-half injury-time.

Smyth and Murphy traded frees in the first five minutes of the second half and Donegal led for the first time on 49 minutes thanks to scores from McElhinney and McBrearty (free), the midlanders losing James McGivney to a second yellow card in the game's most critical incident. Diarmuid Masterson equalised for the 14 men but another McBrearty free in the 56^th minute gave the winners the lead again.

The tide had turned in Donegal's favour and they kicked on with quickfire points from Jamie Brennan and Eoin McHugh to lead by 0-9 to 0-6 after 58 minutes. McBrearty (free) increased the gap to four with six minutes remaining. Smyth pulled back a free but McBrearty and Murphy tacked on late Donegal frees as the hosts progressed to the next round.

Donegal - M A McGinley; P McGrath, N McGee, C Ward; E McHugh (0-1), R McHugh,  E Ban Gallagher; J McGee, M Murphy (0-3f); C Thompson, F McGlynn, M Carroll; M O'Reilly, P McBrearty (0-5, 4f), M Langan. Subs: M McElhinney (0-2) for M Carroll, H McFadden for J McGee, J Brennan (0-1) for M O'Reilly, M McHugh for F McGlynn, K Lacey for M Langan, P Brennan for E Ban Gallagher.

Longford - P Collum; D Masterson (0-1), P McCormack, B Gilleran; D McElligott, M Quinn, D Reynolds; J Keegan, D McGivney (0-3f); D Mimnagh, J McGivney, D Gallagher; R Smyth (0-3, 2f), L Connerton, B McKeon. Subs: C Berry for D Mimnagh (BC), L Moran for D Gallagher (BC), A Farrell for B McKeon, R McEntire for D McGivney, J Kelly for L Connerton.

Referee - P Hughes.

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