Ulster Under 21 Hurling Shield Final
Tyrone 0-16
Donegal 2-8
Donegal’s Under-21 hurlers can hold their heads high after going down by just two points against Tyrone in the final of the Ulster Under 21 Hurling Shield in Celtic Park, Derry on Wednesday evening.
Tyrone stormed into the game from the start and had built up a six point lead before Donegal registered their first score with a point by Christopher Bonner on 12 minutes.
The outstanding Damian Casey was dominating midfield and his five early scores included four frees and a brilliant solo effort. Two Donegal pointed frees from Ronan Mc Dermott and Justin Browne were cancelled out by strikes from Mark Mullan and Ciaran McCrudden.
Four further Casey frees in the last ten inutes of the first half extended Tyrone’s lead. A point on the stroke of half-time from Donegal’s Colm Kelly still left his team with an uphill task at the break, trailing by seven points 0-11 to 0-4.
The second half was marked by a strong defensive display by Donegal,with Padraig Doherty driving his team forward. Turning possession into scores proved difficult for both sides.
Donegal senior Ronan McDermott saw a 20 metre free rebound off the crossbar. Brian McGurk then extended Tyrone’s lead on 40 minutes.
Three Donegal points followed from Browne, Bonner and Conor McCormack, and going into the final ten minutes a comeback seemed possible. However, three Casey frees and a point by Kiefer Morgan left nine points between the teams with five minutes remaining.
Donegal were not finished yet!
An opportunist goal on 26 minutes by the ever dangerous corner foward Colm Kelly was followed almost immediately by a long range Browne free. Kelly then struck again with two minutes left. Winning a long ball into the square he rounded two defenders before firing an unstoppable shot to the net. With the margin down to two points Donegal belatedly threw everything at the Tyrone defence. Despite a number of half chances time eventually ran out for Donegal and Tyrone held on for a deserved win.
Tyrone: Conor McElhatton, Mark McCrory, Conor McNally, Gavin McNamee, Liam Armstrong, Tiarnan Morgan, Dermot Begley, Damian Casey (0-12, 11f), Gerard Gilmore, Eamonn Duffin, Kiefer Morgan (0-1), Ciaran McCrudden (0-1), Brian McGurk (0-1), Mark Mullan (0-1), Matthew Mulgrew. Subs: Kevin Gormley (35 mins), Dwyer Marshall(48 mins), Sean O’Hagan (50 mins), Ruairi Devlin, Michael Maneely, Michael Donnelly, Patrick Quigg, Caolan Devlin.
Donegal: Dylan Laverty, Fintan Culhane, Padraig Doherty, Mark Callaghan, Christopher McDermott, Shane Gallen, Colm Flood, Justin Browne (0- 3, 3f), Conor Parke, Ronan McDermott (0-1, 1f), Conor McVeigh, Christopher Bonner (0-2), Bernard Lafferty, Conor Gallen, Colm Kelly (2-1). Subs: Conor Mc Cormack (42 mins, 0-1), Ciaran O’Leary, Ryan Duffy, Eoin Friel, Gavin Browne, Sean Curran, Colm Melaugh, Joe Alvey, Jamie Brennan, Gavin McGrath, Gareth Quinn.
Tags:
