Tyrone finish in style to end Donegal's hopes of Ulster U-17 title

Tyrone goals from Conor Owens and Cormac Devlin in a dominant final quarter broke Donegal hearts in the Electric Ireland Ulster U-17 championship final at Brewster Park in Enniskillen.

Donegal 1-7
Tyrone 2-11

Tyrone were comfortably the better team in the first half, although Donegal looked to be making some sort of comeback in the third quarter at 0-9 to 0-6 down. Tyrone, at the time, were temporarily without their talisman Ruairi McHugh, who had been sin-binned.

However, two goals in three minutes from the 14 men essentially won it. Firstly Owens got in on 50 minutes to blast home from a Eoin McElhom pass and then, just over a minute later, Devlin was similarly emphatic in his finish from a superb ball from Shea O’Hare.

Donegal kept their faint hopes alive with a fantastically drilled goal from substitute Karl Joseph Molloy in the 55th minute when Niall Robinson in the Tyrone goal could only half-clear with a punch from a raking ball in from Sean Martin.

Tyrone now go on to play Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final following their 24th Ulster title.

Gerard Donnelly’s team had been in glittering form with last Saturday’s 6-21 to 1-6 victory over Fermanagh following up a 3-16 to 0-9 defeat of Down.

In Enniskillen, they were out of the blocks fast, kicking two points inside of the first 45 seconds with captain Devlin and then Ronan Strain on target. The Red Hands were dominating all over the pitch and Donegal were struggling to find a foothold.

Tyrone also kicked six sides inside the first quarter and Donegal finally got off the mark in the 14th minute through a nicely-worked Kevin McCormack score. And Daniel Marley popped one over two minutes later, the score was level at 0-2 despite the imbalance in the play till that point.

Aaron Cullen, the Donegal goalkeeper, had made important second quarter saves in all three of his side’s contests to date and did so again when he got behind a slap from Paddy McCann when Gavin Potter’s ball in had fallen short. Tyrone were still not the most economical - they’d kick 11 in the first half alone- but they started to make some sort of hay.

Tyrone were pressing up on the Donegal kick-outs and when Cullen in goal went long invariably the likes of Sean O’Hare, Donnelly and McHugh were cleaning up.

By half-time they were 0-7 to 0-3 in front, which was a much more accurate reflection of proceedings. Devlin, Potter, Ryan Donnelly and Ronan Cassidy were all point-scorers in that second quarter, with only Sean Martin scoring for Donegal.

Donegal’s path to the final - their first sincemanager Luke Barrett’s father Shaun Paul was in charge in 2016 - saw them come through contrasting challenges. They managed to hammer Antrim 4-22 to 0-8 in the preliminary round before edging past Monaghan 1-9 to 0-10 with 14 men following the sending off of Ethan Friel in the last eight and then squeezed past Armagh 1-6 to 0-5 in the semi-final.

Three wides at the start of the second half wasn’t what Donegal were after, although they were on the front foot. Michael Callaghan, only on, ended that series of misses with a well-taken score on 37 minutes.

Tyrone’s woes in front of the posts continued - they were giving Donegal every chance - and there was significant development on 42 minutes when McHugh, huge at midfield for Tyrone, was black-carded for dissent. Donegal in general and Sean Ward in particular took advantage with a long-range point, only for Tyrone to score their only score of the quarter at the other end through McElholm. At the three-quarter mark it was 0-8 to 0-5 for Tyrone.

Another free from Cassidy at the start of the fourth quarter put four in it and it was looking like Doengal might need a couple of snookers. Donal Gallagher joined the attack from corner-back to take one off the deficit only for Tyrone to strike gold with two goals. Potter got in for another goal chance moments later, only to shoot across the goal and wide.

Molloy’s goal was excellent but even then Donegal were still 2-9 to 1-6 down. Late scores from the two Tyrone goalscorers - Owens and man of the match Devlin - sealed the win.

Donegal: Aaron Cullen; Donal Gallagher (0-1), Cormac Gallagher, Karl Magee; Sean Martin (0-1), Ethan Friel, Oisin Caulfield; Sean Ward (0-1), Conor Reid; Cathal McGeever, Kevin McCormack (0-1), Conor McGinty; Daniel Marley (0-1), Paddy McElwee, Luke McGlynn (0-1, 1f). Subs: James Doherty for Friel (27), Michael Callaghan (0-1) and Gary Kelly for Reid and McElwee (half-time), Cormac McColgan for McGinty (48), Karl Joseph Molloy (1-0) for McCormack (54)

Tyrone: Niall Robinson; Michael Rafferty, Ronan Fox, Callan Kelly; Hugh Cunningham, Shea O’Hare, Matthew Mallon; Ronan Donnelly (0-1), Ruairi McHugh; Ronan Strain (0-1), Cormac Devlin (1-3), Gavin Potter (0-1); Ronan Cassidy (0-2, 1f), Paddy McCann, Eoin McElholm (0-2, 1m). Subs: Conor Owens (1-1) for McCann (46), Noah Grimes for Cassidy (53), Ben Hughes and Jack Martin for Cunningham and Strain (60+1)



Referee: Anthony Marron (Monaghan).