Orchard Minors seal Shield success against Tyrone

Armagh 1-11 Tyrone 0-8

ARMAGH captured the Ulster Minor League Shield title with a six-point win over old rivals Tyrone at Crossmaglen on Saturday afternoon. These two teams met in the u16 Buncrana Cup final last season and again it was the Orchard men who prevailed.

Tyrone struggled to get into the contest early on with the home side flying into a ten-point half time lead and Eoin Duffy’s three-pointer just before the short whistle left Tyrone with an uphill battle after the turnaround.

Gerard Donnelly’s youngsters did get back into the game once the two teams switched sides, firing over five-points on the trot, but they couldn’t get the goal that was really going to bring them back into contention.

Armagh got off to a great start with three points to open the game and set them on their way with the hard-working Fionn Toale pointing after a prolonged period of keep ball right at the start of the encounter.

Armagh captain skipper Shea Loughran kicked two-points in a row (one free) before Tyrone got up and running with a pointed free from Lorcan McMurray but that was cancelled out through Eoin Duffy.

Liam McGeary added a second from Tyrone but Diarmaid O’Rourke, son of Armagh manager and 2002 All-Ireland winner Aidan, split the posts for Armagh.

Toale popped over yet another score before Tyrone midfielder Fionn McHugh picked up a black card for dragging down Jack Loughran and Tyrone’s challenge suddenly became a much steeper one.

It was mostly one-way traffic with the Orchard County dominating proceedings, although Tyrone did have some success going forward with Jamie Concannon’s darting runs from deep causing Armagh a few headaches.

With the extra man, however,s Armagh hit a scoring spree that yielded 1-4 in quick succession before the break. Midfielder Daithi O’Callaghan, playing on his home club grounds, converted a mark after a fantastic pass from Sean Woods while McGeary also marked at the other end.

James McCooe opened his account for the day before turning provider, setting up Loughran for another point. Loughran then assisted the next score, playing through Duffy for the game’s first and only goal after a brilliant counter attacking move.

Duffy finished off the scoring for the first period with a point, leaving Armagh ten-points clear at the half time interval, 1-10 to 0-3.

Tyrone closed the gap immediately after the turnaround with Aodhan Quinn and Shea Munroe (free) landing two scores that brought them back into the contest before they added three scores through Adam Cushnahan, McMurray and McGeary to leave five the margin.

Both sides were reduced to 14 men with Armagh substitute Aaron Garvey receiving his marching orders for two bookable offences moments after coming in while Peter Colton picked up a straight red.

Armagh finally got their first score of the second half after 28 minutes when a superb Aodhan McGrane block in defence led to a point at the other end from full forward Duffy and that was the final nail in Tyrone’s coffin.

All focus will swiftly turn towards championship and Tyrone host Down next Saturday in the opening round of the Ulster Championship.

The Scorers:

Armagh: Eoin Duffy 1-3, Shea Loughran 0-3 (1f), Fionn Toale 0-2, Diarmaid O’Rourke 0-1, Daithi O’Callaghan 0-1 (1m), James McCooe 0-1.

Tyrone: Liam McGeary 0-3 (1m), Lorcan McMurray 0-2 (1f), Aodhan Quinn 0-1, Shea Munroe 0-1, Adam Cushnahan 0-1 (1f).

The Teams:

Armagh: James McBennett, Conal Wilson, Gavin O’Rourke, Danny McGee, Fergus Toale, Sean Woods, Diarmaid O’Rourke, Jack Loughran, Daithi O’Callaghan, James McCooe, Caomh Agnew, Keelan McEntee, Fionn Toale, Eoin Duffy, Shea Loughran. Subs: Aaron Garvey for C. Agnew, Aodhan McGrane for K. McEntee, Tomas Fox for S. Woods.

Tyrone: Ronan Donnelly, Davin McKeown, Paul McGinley, Jamie Concannon, Padraig Donaghy, Shea McDermott, Darragh Devlin, Fionn McHugh, Padraig Goodman, Shea Munroe, Liam McGeary, Aodhan Quinn, Lorcan McMurray, Enda Donaghy, Peter Colton. Subs: Adam Cushnahan for F. McHugh, Thomas Meehan for E. Donaghy, Darren McAnespie for A. Munroe, Eoin Long for L. McMurray, Ross Daly for P. Donaghy.

Referee:

Christopher Brady.