Donegal eased past Louth by 2-22 to 0-12 at Ballybofey to reach the last-eight of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.
Jim McGuinness’ side will head into Monday’s draw knowing they’ll be paired against either Monaghan or Meath as they have already played Tyrone and Armagh, the other two sides in pot one in this years Championship.
Pre-game conversation centred around the late arrival of the Louth team after the team-bus took a wrong turn on their journey to Ballybofey.
The Leinster champions arrived at the venue just before 15:15 BST for the scheduled 16:00 BST start, but the game was not delayed and the ball was thrown in as planned.
The preliminary quarter-final clash was Donegal’s eighth Championship outing in just 12 weeks, and that perhaps contributed to the lethargic nature of their first-half performance.
Donegal led 0-5 to 0-1 after 16 minutes as Oisin Gallen, Paedar Morgan and Michael Murphy were all on target.
But Louth replied with four score in a row, three of which came from the boot of Ryan Burns to level the game ten minutes before the break.
Donegal finished the half strong to lead 1-6 to 0-7 at the interval, and Oisin Gallen grabbed their first score in 14 minutes before Sean Patton’s kick-out was flicked to Ciaran Moore, who found Conor O’Donnell with a looping hand-pass over the top and he made no mistake as he fired into the back of the net.
Louth needed a response in the second half and Sam Mulroy kicked his first score of the game to mark the start of the second stanza, but the Ulster champions would reply with five scores in a row, two of which came from an inspirational two-pointer from Murphy.
Mulroy replied for the Leinster champions before their season completely imploded in the space of 10 minutes.
Ciaran Thompson blasted into the net after a fine set-up from Gallen before Louth were temporarily reduced to 14 as Peter Lynch was shown a black-card.
The home team took real advantage throughout that spell and kicked 0-7 without reply, including another two-pointer from Michael Langan, and 2-18 played 0-9 as Lynch marked his return to action with Louth’s first score in 13 minutes.
Niall O’Donnell, Daire O Baoill and Caolan McColgan added late gloss to the scoreboard as the Tir Chonaill finished with 12 different scorers, and all but one of their points came from play as they safely secured their passage back to Croke Park for the quarter-finals.
Donegal: Shaun Patton; Finbarr Roarty (0-2), Brendan McCole, Peadar Mogan (0-1); Ryan McHugh, Eoghan Ban Gallagher, Ciaran Moore; Jason McGee, Michael Langan (0-3 1 2pt); Caolan McColgan (0-1), Ciaran Thompson (1-0), Shane O’Donnell (0-1); Conor O’Donnell (1-2), Michael Murphy (0-3 1f 1 2pt), Oisin Gallen (0-5).
Subs: Hugh McFadden (0-1) for J McGee (HT), Daire O Baoill (0-2) for R McHugh (49), Patrick McBrearty for M Murphy (52), Niall O’Donnell (0-1) for C O’Donnell (55), Odhran McFadden-Ferry for E Ban Gallagher (55)
Louth: Niall McDonnell; Daire Nally, Dermot Campbell, Donal McKenny; Emmett Carolan, Peter Lynch (0-1), Craig Lennon (0-1); Tommy Durnin, Dara McDonnell (0-1); Conal McKeever, Ciaran Downey (0-1), Paul Matthews (0-1); Dan Corcoran, Sam Mulroy (0-3 2f), Ryan Burns (0-4).
Subs: Conor Grimes for E Carolan (HT), Sean Callaghan for T Durnin (49), Ryan Walsh for P Matthews (52), Kieran McArdle for C Lennon (54), James Maguire for R Burns (56)
Referee: Barry Cassidy (Derry)
