Gr-‘Eight’ showing by Tyrone U20s in opener

ANTRIM 0-7 TYRONE 8-16

TYRONE U-20s opened their Ulster Championship campaign in style with a thumping victory over Antrim at a chilly Dunsilly in Saturday afternoon’s group stage round one encounter.

33 points separated the sides at the final whistle of a massively lop-sided contest which saw Tyrone plunder eight goals across the hour.

Hopes are high for this Tyrone team and they played some spell-binding football but they’ll know themselves that tougher tests are around the corner with further group stage matches against Derry, Monaghan and Down still to come.

But with a host of lads in their ranks who have already won plenty across the board at underage level, who knows what Tyrone could achieve if they get things right in the business stages of the championship.

The Saffrons hinted at providing a decent-ish challenge in the opening exchanges but the floodgates opened when Gavin Potter struck for an early goal.

Oisin Gormley bagged another shortly thereafter as Tyrone opened up a 2-3 to 0-2 lead and they remained firmly in control of the contest for the rest of the game.

Eoin McElholm, who finished his day’s work with three goals and two points to his name, applied a composed finish to the net after precise and quick build-up play from his colleagues.

Young Antrim lad Tom Shivers raised a few white flags for Antrim but Tyrone were in no mood to mess around and claimed a fourth goal, Conor Owens making no mistake from the penalty spot.

Tyrone led 4-5 to 0-5 at the break and they continued where they left off after the break despite the best efforts of an Antrim team that were ultimately out of their depth.

Points from the impressive Conor Owens, Cormac Devlin, Shea O’Hare and Odhran Broly saw Tyrone
pushed further in front and they led 4-11 to 0-6 with 40 minutes on the clock.

The Red Hands were a well-oiled machine and pounced for two further goals from Cormac Devlin and McElholm in the space of a three minute-spell mid-way through the second period. Antrim lost one of their few shining lights on the day, Cahir Donnelly, to a second bookable offence in the 50th minute.

McElholm completed his hat-trick of goals as the final ten minutes of the game approached, while Conor Owens pounced for his second goal of the day.

THE SCORERS
Tyrone
Conor Owens (2-6), Eoin McElholm (3-2), Cormac Devlin (1-3), Gavin Potter (1-1), Oisin Gormley (1-0) Shea O’Hare (0-2), Ronan Cassidy and Odhran Brolly (0-1)

Antrim
Tom Shivers (0-5), Shea Laverty (0-1)

THE TEAMS
Tyrone
Conor McAneney, Joey Clarke, Ben Hughes, Conor Devlin, Shea O’ Hare, Michael Rafferty, Odhran Brolly, Ruairi McHugh, Paddy McCann, Cormac Devlin, Eoin Mc Elholm, Gavin Potter, Ronan Cassidy, Conor Owens, Oisin Gormley

Antrim
Shea Laverty, Ciaran Maginnis, Cahir Donnelly, Paddy Gowdy, Tiernan McCormick, Paul Duffin, Connloadh McCann, Manus McCrossan, Tom Shivers, Callum Walsh, Enda McCartan, Rory McErlean, Niall Duffy, Jonny Hannon, Niall Fallon

Referee: Richie Donoghue (Derry