Ryan McHugh's injury-time goal gave Donegal a dramatic 1-7 to 0-9 victory over Cavan at Ballybofey.
The visitors, who went into the game with a 14-match unbeaten run at this level and chasing a fifth successive Ulster title, looked to have done enough when Caomhin O'Reilly clipped over a last-minute insurance point. But three minutes were added and, in the second of those, McHugh made amends for an earlier penalty miss to pounce for the winning score.
Conor Madden opened the scoring for Cavan and Donegal hit back with five consecutive points from Ciaran Thompson (2), Dara McDaid and Darragh Mulgrew to lead by four after 17 minutes. But the Breffni County landed the last three scores of the half to trail by just one at the short whistle - 0-5 to 0-4 thanks to three points from O'Reilly.
Upon the restart, in a low-scoring affair, Cavan kicked on with scores from Michael Argue, Jonathan McCabe and Madden before McHugh supplied the winners' first score in some 24 minutes to reduce the gap to one again, 0-7 to 0-6.
Cavan added another but Donegal were awarded a penalty when Jack O'Brien was felled; Mark Fagan denied McHugh, with Hugh McFadden converting the resultant '45'. But McHugh made no mistake with his late, late goal chance and there is generally no coming back from a 62nd-minute goal...
Donegal - D Rodgers; C Morrison, C Parke, J O'Brien; T McClenaghan, R McHugh (1-1, 0-1f), E Gallagher; D Mulgrew (0-1), H McFadden (0-1'45); C Thompson (0-3), E McHugh, O Crawford; D O'Connor, D McDaid (0-1f), S McBrearty. Subs: C Mulligan for D McDaid, R Carr for D O'Connor, E McGrath for S McBrearty.
Cavan - M Fegan; B Fortune, M Magee, F Reilly; G Smith, P Faulkner, C Brady; K Brady, M Argue (0-1); J McCabe (0-1), C Madden (0-2), A Watson; C O'Reilly (0-4, 3f), T Hayes, E Flanagan (0-1f). Subs: V Coyle for J McCabe, N Walsh for C Madden, N Clerkin for B Fortune (BC), C Daly for P Faulkner, R Connolly for C O'Reilly.
Referee - S Hurson.
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