Derry Are Minor Champions Again

Sunday 16.07.2017

 

Derry 1-22 Cavan 2-12

Derry justified their favourites tag at Clones on Sunday afternoon when they won an enthralling  Electric Ireland Ulster minor championship title final.

 

Derry led 0-14 to 1-7 at the break ahead of a superb opening thirty minutes. Derry could have had a goal after only thirty seconds but Declan Cassidy fired narrowly wide of the left hand post.

 

They were soon into their stride though and by the 5^th minute they had registered four points through Patrick Quigg, Lorcan McWilliams, Conleth McShane and Oisin McWilliams.

 

Sixty seconds later Cavan were back in contention when midfielder James Smith smashed home a brilliant goal. Cian Madden then equalised but Derry were looking the better side.

 

By the end of the opening quarter they had already amassed ten points with Quigg, Ben McCarron and Cassidy all on target. Padraig McGrogan and Patrick Lynch then traded points before Madden closed the gap to four.

 

Cavan were dealt a blow when goal scorer Smith was black carded and Derry increased their advantage with a brace of frees from McWilliams. Cavan though closed out the half with efforts from Tiarnan Reilly and Philip Rogers.

 

Cavan picked up where they had left off on the restart with Oisin Pierson scoring twice. McCarron, Cassidy and Quigg then eased Derry five clear but they were rocked when Rogers palmed in a goal in the 41^st minute.

 

It was anybody’s game at this stage as Lorcan McWilliams twice exchanged points with Madden and Pierson. Derry then grabbed that scrambled goal through McCarron and they closed the game out with points from substitutes Alex Doherty and Fergal Mortimer.

 

DERRY: O Hartin; O McGill, C McCluskey, S McKeever; S McErlain, D Rafferty, C McShane (0-1); P McGrogan (0-1), O McWilliams (0-1, 1f); P Quigg (0-4, 1f), R Mullan, D Cassidy (0-3); B McCarron (1-3), L McWilliams (0-6, 3f), M McGrogan. Subs: T McHugh (0-1) for M McGrogan, C Brown for Mullan, A Doherty (0-1) for McGill, M Bradley for Cassidy, F Mortimer (0-1) for Quigg, C Murphy for McCarron

 

CAVAN: G O’Rourke; E Fortune, P Meade, K Brady; D Cusack, C Timoney, K Hendrick; R Patterson, J Smith (1-0); O Kiernan, C Madden (0-3), P Rogers (1-2); O Pierson (0-4, 2f), P Lynch (0-1), S Keogan. Subs: J Cooke (0-1) for Meade, T Reilly (0-1) for Smith (black card), P Nulty for Hendrick, N McCabe for Keogan, C Lynch for Kiernan

 

Referee: M McNally, Monaghan