Tyrone U20 hurlers seal Ulster Shield success

Tyrone 2-7 Donegal 0-9

TWO early goals proved decisive as Tyrone U20s claimed the inaugural Ulster U20 Shield title following a combative and competitive meeting with Donegal at Garvaghey on Sunday.

Tyrone had carved out a facile victory against Donegal in the group stages but this was an exponentially tighter match and the Red Hands were certainly made to work for their victory.

Shea Monroe and Corey Bell smashed home two early goals within the opening three minutes of play, suggesting that Tyrone could be in for a comfortable enough afternoon.

Donegal, however, were up for the battle and played their part in an absorbing contest, though you always had the incline that Tyrone would have enough when push came to shove.

Tyrone opened up a 2-0 to 0-1 lead thanks to those aforementioned early strikes, but Donegal free-taker Brendan Gaffney brought his side back into the contest in a frantic first-half that saw both teams pick up a smattering of yellow cards.

The Red Hands moved into a 2-2 to 0-4 lead by the 25th minute as Francie Hurson perfectly executed a long-range free and Pierce Mullin’s goal-bound shot was tipped over the bar by the alert Donegal goalkeeper.

Scores were at a premium with both sides making it difficult for the other to piece together meaningful attacking moves, though Gaffney, who scored all of Donegal’s first-half points, notched another free while Aidan Woods did likewise for Tyrone, meaning they held a 2-3 to 0-5 score at the half-time interval.

Tyrone were dominant in the opening exchanges of the second-half and extended their advantage with another free from Woods, while half-backs Ruairi O’Sullivan and Ronan Molloy were getting on plenty of ball on the flanks.

Woods’ latest free opened up a 2-5 to 0-5 lead, but Donegal to their credit kept on plugging away and reduced the deficit with a free of their own.

Donegal racked up a number of wides in the midway stage of the half but they started to eat into Tyrone’s lead in the final ten minutes, flashing over three points in the space of a few minutes, including a fine effort from play from centre-half back Donal Farrelly.

That left only three points between the teams as injury-time approached. The next score was crucial and Aidan Woods held his nerve superbly to score a 40 metre free into a cross-field breeze after Fionn Corry was fouled.

Donegal kept on pushing hard and were granted two close-range frees in injury time, Tyrone goalkeeper Odhran McMurray doing extremely well on both occasions to keep the net from rattling after Gaffney elected to go for goal on both occasions.

The Red Hands were granted a late penalty, Aidan Woods’ shot superbly saved by Donegal’s Joseph Patton, but it was immaterial as the final whistle blew  and the celebrations could begin.

Scorers

Tyrone: Aidan Woods (0-5, 0-5f), Shea Monroe and Corey Bell (1-0 each), Pierce Mullin (0-1), Francie Hurson (0-1, 0-1f)

Donegal: Brendan Gaffney (0-5, 0-5f), John Kealy (0-2, 0-2f), Donal Farrelly (0-1), David Horgan (0-1, 0-1f)

Teams

Tyrone: Odhran McMurray, Cillian Kerr, Cormac McCrystal, Michael Coyle, Ruairi O’Sullivan, Francie Hurson, Ronan Molloy, Kevin Hughes, Fionn Corry, Aidan Woods, Corey Bell, Eunan Campbell, Liam Griffiths, Pierce Mullin, Shea Monroe. Subs: Donnacha Mór O’Neill for Mullin, Aidan Gormley for O’Sullivan, Conor Doherty for Griffiths, Conor McGlinchey for Campbell

Donegal: Joseph Patton, Sean Brady Devenney, Shane Ellison, Oisin Kerr, Kyron McColgan, Donal Farrelly, Aidan McKinney, Fionn Farren, David Horgan, Matthew Callaghan, Dáire Tully, Brendan Gaffney, John Kealy, Neil Ó Baoighill, Jacob Malone