Donegal’s forward line proved to be the difference with full forward Colm McFadden particularly impressive, accounting for 2-06 of Donegal’s final total of 2-10. The Donegal attack proved to be more physical than that of Fermanagh’s and this was to be vital in the outcome with a lightweight Fermanagh forward line often struggling to get into the game. Fermanagh will be disappointed at their defeat especially after such a good run in the Hastings Cup competition where they were defeated in the final only after extra time by Kildare. Going into this game Fermanagh would possibly have been favourites having had the majority of the side that reached last year’s Ulster final back on board for this campaign. However, Donegal only lost to Down who went on to win the All Ireland minor title after a replay when these sides were minors, and they highlighted this quality on Saturday last. The game started well for Fermanagh with them winning plenty of possession at midfield and they opened the scoring after two minutes when Newtownbutler’s Ryan Carson pointed from a free after a foul off the ball on Mark Little. Donegal replied to this shortly afterwards with their first point of the tie, a fine effort from Colm McFadden from wide on the right to level the scores, but Fermanagh’s superiority in the opening quarter was translated on to the scoreboard by two more points from Ryan Carson. The first was from a free following a foul on Shane McCabe and the second finished off a move by Niall Keenan and Brendan McBrien. The second quarter though thoroughly belonged to Donegal as they began to stamp their authority on the game and they moved into the lead for the first time in the game when Colm McFadden struck for his first goal. McFadden finished after the ball was flicked into his path by Rory Kavanagh. The sides exchanged scores through a Molloy free and a point from Brendan McBrien to keep just a point between the sides but in the next five minutes Colm McFadden scored 1-02 to put Donegal into a comfortable lead coming up to the interval. A point from play was followed by a quality goal as he turned Paul Gunn before firing to the back of the net after which he pointed a ‘45’ to give Donegal a definite advantage. Points from Niall Cunningham and Ryan Carson from frees sandwiched a McFadden free to leave the scores at the interval reading 0-06 to 2-05 in favour of Donegal. Trailing by five points at the break Fermanagh needed to get scores on the board early in the second half and this is exactly what they did as they fought their way back into contention. They made the ideal start to the half when Shane McCabe launched a long ball into the Donegal defence which was won by Ryan Carson who was now at full forward. He in turn fed Mark Little who made no mistake in finding the back of the net to close the gap to two points. Fermanagh were on top at this stage and Carson was proving to be a thorn in the side for the Donegal defence as again he pointed after good work by Shane McCabe. Carson then pointed from a free to level the scores at 1-08 to 2-05 before Fermanagh moved back into the lead with a Brendan McBrien point. Fermanagh though needed another point at this stage to assert themselves but again that man McFadden was on hand, pulling the sides together again with a free. Rafferty and McBrien swapped points to set up a tense final ten minutes but again Donegal put in a strong finish to the half and two points from Dunne and another from McFadden sealed the win for Donegal by a scoreline of 1-10 to 2-10.