Donegal were crowned the All-Ireland Masters football champions for 2019 after they finished with two points to spare over holders Dublin in today’s final at Ballyleague.

The winners claimed the spoils on a scoreline of 0-9 to 0-7.

The Tir Chonaill outfit lost out to the metropolitans at the semi-final stage 12 months ago but gained revenge in the best possible fashion with a five-point return from corner-forward Michael Ward a key ingredient in their winning formula.

The first-half finished with Donegal 0-4 to 0-2 to the good.

With the backing of a strong wind to come, the team in sky blue would have fancied their chances of overturning that deficit in the second-half but they were frustrated by a resolute Donegal defensive effort.

At the opposite end of the field, Val McLaughlin’s side kept the scoreboard ticking over through Ward, Johnny McCafferty, Brian McLaughlin and Barry Monaghan.

The team in sky blue did reduce the deficit to the bare minimum late on through Tommy Brennan (free) and Joey Morris but Ward had the final say to give his team a two-point winning margin.

Ray Cosgrove, Gary O’Connell, Ciaran McGuinness, Niall Crossan and Paul Croft also found the target for Dublin during the course of the entertaining contest.

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