Second-half goals propel Tyrone to Ulster Minor triumph

Tyrone 2-11

Donegal 1-7

TWO second-half goals in the space of the minute made all the difference as Tyrone triumphed in last night’s Ulster Minor Championship final against Donegal at Brewster Park.

In doing so they were crowned Ulster Minor Champions for the 24th time, a comfortable nine titles ahead of nearest challengers Derry on the all-time leaderboard.

While Tyrone were much the superior outfit, they hit 15 wides across the hour and looked like they might pay for their wastefulness as Donegal clawed their way back into the contest after trailing by four points at half-time.

However, this talented young Tyrone team pushed for home in the 49th minute when Conor Owens rifled the ball to the back of the net after a Donegal kick-out was dispossessed.

Literally a minute later, they added a second major when captain fantastic Cormac Devlin unleashed a stunning shot after a tremendous cross-field ball from Shea O’Hare.

The scoreboard now read 2-9 to 0-6, and that was the game effectively over as a contest even though Donegal, who were fairly toothless on the night, mustered a consolation goal from Karl Joseph Molloy.

Tyrone sprung out of the traps from the throw-in with quickfire points from Devlin and Ronan Strain, but a string of wides meant the sides were level at the first-half water-break.

Further points from Devin, Gavin Potter, Ronan Donnelly and Ronan Cassidy ensured that Tyrone held a deserved 0-7 to 0-3 lead at half-time, but they were sluggish in the third quarter and looked like they could be in real bother when Ruairi McHugh was black card.

However, they responded magnificently to the challenge with those two aforementioned goals, setting up an All-Ireland Championship semi-final against Munster kingpins Cork with the time and venue to be confirmed.

See Monday’s Tyrone Herald for full match coverage