Donegal under 20’s proved too strong for Derry as they won 3-14 to 0-06 in Celtic Park in the first group game of the Larry Murphy Cup.
Goals from Ryan McShane and a brace from Bobby McGettigan gave Donegal a comfortable win.
it’s never an easy contest against Derry at underage level but to their credit, Gary Duffy’s young side were ruthless in attack.
Johnny McGroddy converted his free kicks well as Donegal took a commanding points lead in the first half but the second half goals put the game to bed as a contest as Donegal coasted to victory.
Derry were without a number of players who would’ve been available but are away with the senior panel, with a couple Donegal players in the same boat.
Donegal led by six at half-time , 0-10 to 0-04 ,Johnny McGroddy got five of those points, four from frees.
They were the better team in all areas, defending well and dangerous going forward.
Bobby McGettigan, Caolan McColgan, Eric Carr, Paul O’Hare and Carlos O’Reilly all got the white flag raised, all with good scores from play.
McGroddy and O’Reilly added early second-half points and then Bobby McGettigan and Ryan McShane converted quick fire goals after good work by Luke McGlynn and Paul O’Hare respectively to set them up, game over, 2-12 to 0-06.
McGettigan added another goal late on to round off an impressive Donegal win.
Also in Donegal’s group are Mayo and Roscommon and a win from either of those two remaining games should see Donegal progress to the semi-final of the competition.
Donegal: Daithi Roberts, Kieran Tobin , Sean Doherty , Ryan McShane (1-00) , Caolan McColgan (0-01), Keelan Dunleavy (0-01), Eric Carr (0-01), Bobby McGettigan (2-01), Drew McKinney, Ciaran Moore, Johnny McGroddy (0-07/6f’s), Oisin Caufield, Luke McGlynn, Carlos O’Reilly (0-02), Paul O’Hare(0-01).
Subs: Oisin Crawford for Moore (35mins), Fionnan Coyle for McGlynn (52mins), Eoin Dowling for McColgan (55mins), Senan Rooney for O’Hare (55mins), Conor Coyle for Caufield (56mins).
Derry: Callum Lagan; Patrick McGurk, Ronan McFaul, Adam McGonigle, Conor Shiels, Ryan Lennox, Aidan McCloskey; Dan Higgins, Patrick O’Kane; Mark Doherty, Tiarnan Higgins, James McGurk, PJ McAleese, Shea McKenna, Charlie Diamond.
Subs: Donnacha Gilmore for Ryan Lennox (20mins).
