DONEGAL 1-12
KERRY 0-6

Donegal heaped further pressure on Eamonn Fitzmaurice when inflicting a fourth NFL Division 1 defeat on the trot on Kerry in Ballybofey today.

Michael Murphy was the Kingdom's main tormentor-in-chief and he finished the contest with 1-5 to his name.

Kerry's cause wasn't helped by the second half dismissal of Tomas O Se while Kieran O'Leary also missed a second half penalty.

The signs were ominous for the visitors when they fell 1-3 to 0-0 in arrears early on.

It was all one way traffic in the early stages after Leo McLoone registered the first point of the game for the All-Ireland champions.

Murphy was left to rue a missed penalty against Tyrone last weekend but he made up for that miss when beating Brendan Kealy via the penalty spot following a foul on Ross Wherity.

Colm McFadden and Paddy McBrearty followed Murphy's strike up with white flags.

With snow falling, Kerry - who were wearing their alternative blue strip - eventually began to find their feet and hit two unanswered points from Johnny Buckley and Tomas O Se got them into the game.

Murphy replied for the hosts before Eoin Brosnan and Ryan Bradley exchanged points and Donegal led by 1-5 to 0-3 at the break.

Any hopes Kerry harboured of mounting a comeback suffered a blow when O Se was sent for an early shower early in the second half after an off-the-ball incident with Ryan McHugh.

Murphy put the resulting free wide but McLoone sent over a fine point shortly after from a tight angle.

Neil Gallagher roamed forward to extend the lead for Jim McGuinness' men and they led by 1-8 to 0-3 with 13 minutes of the second half played.

Rory Kavanagh extended their lead before Darran O'Sullivan then opened the Munster side's second half account.

Murphy hit two unanswered points before Buckley was on target with his second point of the contest. Buckley then brought his personal tally to 0-3 but Kerry failed to add another score.

Their day was summed up when Paul Durcan saved a penalty from substitute O'Leary after Kieran Donaghy was fouled by Eamon McGee

Fittingly, it was Murphy who rounded off the scoring with his fifth point in injury-time.

Donegal - P Durcan; P McGrath, N McGee, E McGee; A Thompson, F McGlynn, R McHugh; R Kavanagh (0-1), N Gallagher (0-1); R Wherity, L McLoone (0-2), R Bradley (0-1); P McBrearty (0-1), M Murphy (1-5, 1-0 pen, 2f), C McFadden (0-1f). Subs: M McElhinney for Wherity, D Molloy for McBrearty, M Smyth for Kavanagh, G McFadden for Gallagher.

Kerry - B Kealy; M Ó Sé, A O'Mahony, S McEnright; T Ó Sé (0-1), K Young, P Crowley; K Donaghy, E Brosnan (0-1); J Lyne, D Walsh, J Buckley (0-3, 2f); J O'Donoghue, Darren O'Sullivan (0-1), M Geaney. Subs: B McGuire for M Ó Sé, F Fitzgerald for O'Donoghue, J Sherwood for Crowley, K O'Leary for O'Sullivan, A Garnett for Donaghy.

Referee - D Fahy. Tweet

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