JJ Smith inspired hopes of a shock win when he found the net in the eleventh minute.

In wet conditions, free-taker Michael Murphy helped Donegal square up the game (0-06 to 1-03) at half-time.

But timely second-half goals from Rory Kavanagh and Conal Dunne took the pressure off the hosts and Carlow’s world crumbled when captain Mark Carpenter was dismissed.

Having lost to Antrim recently in the Ulster Championship, Donegal were expected to come out firing on all cylinders but they put in a poor first-half shift.

Carlow, under the managerial baton of Luke Dempsey, came looking for a scalp and they played like it in the opening half – angered too by the turning down of their request for an earlier throw-in.

Conal Dunne, taking a pass from Rory Kavanagh, may have opened the scoring, but the midlanders were quickly back level thanks to a score from distance from Daniel St Ledger.

Michael Murphy, who top-scored with 0-08 for the hosts, replied before Carlow really set the cat amongst the pigeons. Eric McCormack angled a free in towards the danger area and the ball was broken down for JJ Smith to rasp it to the net.

Smith tagged on a point, as the rain started came down, and it was not until late in the half when Murphy and Stephen Griffin shared out three points that Donegal got back on terms.

As it turned out, leaking those late scores was the beginning of the end for a gutsy Carlow side, marshalled well by Mark Carpenter.

The Barrowsiders’ defence fell asleep, just a minute into the second half, as Griffin swept the ball through for Kavanagh to drill home a much-needed goal for Donegal.

Three frees from Murphy and a point from play from Christy Toye helped the Tir Chonaill men establish further dominance and they sewed up the result when Dunne cracked home a 54th minute goal.

Simon Rea kicked two quick-fire points, slicing the gap back to 2-10 to 1-06, but Carpenter’s sending-off for his second yellow card saw Carlow’s challenge taper off.