Donegal got the better of Antrim in a scrappy Ulster Senior Football Championship preliminary round tie at Ballybofey.
The men from the north-west failed to hit the heights, but did enough to get the better of a sluggish Saffron side and set up a first round clash with Cavan.
Mark McHugh scored the only goal of the game in stoppage time to finally kill off the challenge of an Antrim side that had just been reduced to 14 men with the straight red card dismissal of substitute Mark Dougan.
Antrim channelled extra defenders back to guard against the threat posed by Michael Murphy, and the home side struggled to craft scoring chances, hitting just one point in the opening 22 minutes.
A Colm McFadden free was all they had to show for their efforts in that turgid spell which produced little in the way of flair and enterprise from either side.
Antrim went level with a Kevin Niblock free, and the game’s first score from play didn’t arrive until the 22nd minute, when Ryan Bradley steered over a long range effort to regain the lead for the home side.
The sides were deadlocked when Paddy Cunningham stroked over a free, having earlier missed a more straightforward opportunity, but it was Donegal who bossed the final 10 minutes of the half, outscoring their opponents by four points to one.
Danger men Murphy and Colm McFadden were held scoreless from play, but Adrian Hanlon, Bradley and Dermot ‘Brick’ Molloy drilled over quality scores, and skipper Murphy hooked a free between the posts.
Donegal led by 0-06 to 0-03 at the interval, and stretched the advantage with points from McFadden, Murphy and mark McHugh.
But Antrim frequently threatened, and created the game’s first goal chance when Kevin Brady stroked the ball into space for Kevin Niblock to get a run on goal, but he was denied by a superb Neil McGee block.
Rory Kavanagh stepped up his game in midfield for Donegal, who now had teenager Paddy McBrearty on the field for his second game of the day, having featured in the minor side’s defeat by the Saffrons in the curtain-raiser.
Antrim were lacking in ideas, and went 28 minutes without scoring, before substitute Mark Dougan slotted a point.
When Tomas McCann fired over a long range effort with five minutes to play, just four points separated the sides, and Donegal, who had appeared to have taken total control, were far from safe.
But Antrim were reduced to 14 men when Dougan received a straight red card for flailing his elbow into the face of Karl Lacey.
And the home side duly finished the job off when Mark McHugh collected Kevin Rafferty’s return pass to beat goalkeeper Sean O’Neill with a low finish to the bottom corner of the net.
Donegal: P Durcan, K Lacey, N McGee, P McGrath, F McGlynn, K Cassidy, A Thompson, R Kavanagh, M McElhinney, M McHugh (1-01), D Molloy (0-01), R Bradley (0-02), A Hanlon (0-01), M Murphy (0-03, 3f), C McFadden (0-02, 1f).
Subs: M Boyle for Thompson (20), P McBrearty for Molloy (52), M Hegarty for Hanlon (52), K Rafferty for McElhinney (57), D McLoughlin for Bradley (65)
Antrim: S O’Neill, K O’Boyle, R Johnston, C Brady, T Scullion, J Crozier, A Healy, C Murray, A Gallagher, B Herron, T McCann (0-02), M Sweeney, P Cunningham (0-0, 1f), M McCann, K Niblock (0-02, 2f).
Subs: K Brady for M McCann (41), T O’Neill for Sweeney (46), S Burke for Herron (48), M Dougan (0-01) for Cunningham (57)
Referee: M Deegan (Laois)
