Donegal will have Finnbarr Roarty on board for Ulster U-20 decider against Tyrone

Donegal U-20s have been boosted by the availability of senior player Finnbarr Roarty as they take on Tyrone in the Ulster U-20 final on Wednesday evening in Owenbeg, Derry (7.30).

Gary Boyle’s charges had a huge win over Cavan in the semi-final in MacCumhaill Park on Wednesday of last week while Tyrone, the current Ulster and All-Ireland U-20 champions, overcame Derry in Owenbeg.

Donegal were very comfortable against Cavan and were able to introduce Roarty to the action early in the second half. In the end they ran out 4-19 to 2-7 winners in what was almost a complete performance.

They have already encountered the Red Hand side in the group stages, registering a good win in MacCumhaill Park by 3-16 to 0-17. Their goals that night came from Mark McDevitt, Conor McCahill and Dylan Mulholland.

Donegal were without Finnbarr Roarty, Cian McMenamin and Turlough Carr for that game while Tyrone were significantly without their senior player Eoin McElholm.

However, McElholm was the only Tyrone player missing so Donegal should be in a strong position for Wednesday night’s final. Will Roarty get the job of marking McElholm?

The Naomh Conaill player was rested for the final quarter of Sunday’s Ulster SFC semi-final and afterwards Donegal manager Jim McGuinness explained the importance of Roarty getting to play with his own age group.

“You don’t want to be disrespectful to Down in any way. You’re looking at the clock and you’re looking at the scoreboard. Finnbarr had to come off as well as he has an Ulster final on Wednesday night against Tyrone. That’s a big game for Finnbarr.

“Everyone is in a situation now - can you keep your players on the training pitch? That seems to be the biggest deal now. All the conversations are about injuries and who is available and who is not available. You’re trying to be ahead of that and keep people healthy.

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“You only get a couple of years to play it and then you’re a senior player and it’s very important for younger players to play with their peers. Once it’s gone, it’s gone and we would be in favour of releasing Finnbarr, hopefully for three or four games if it meant Donegal would be in with a chance of an All-Ireland,” said McGuinness.

Donegal have had a flawless U-20 campaign so far with wins over Fermanagh, Antrim, Down, Tyrone and Cavan. This group, who are very young, with many of them having one and some two more years in the competition, are arguably the most talented group that Donegal have fielded for some time.

If they can repeat the on-field performance which they gave against Cavan in the semi-final then they shouldn’t be far away.