Tyrone And Down U20s Finish All Square

Thursday 21.03.2024

Championship Football

Tyrone and Down shared the spoils in the second group games of the Ulster Under 20 championship. A venue change earlier in the afternoon saw the game switched to The Dub in Belfast. Tyrone’s stats will show 17 wides, 3 efforts falling short and hitting the crossbar twice but Down’s carefully executed plan to defend deep, frustrate Tyrone and break at pace almost yielded both points.

A first half that Tyrone will want to forget saw them register just two points, hitting nine wides and giving away possession too cheaply to a Down team, happy to counter and deny Tyrone time and space in the scoring zone. Meanwhile at the other end, despite being starved of the ball for long periods, points from Dara Mussen, Senan Carr and two frees from Jamie Doran gave Down the advantage and when Donal Scullion capitalized on a mix up in the Tyrone defence to find the net in the 26th minute, Tyrone were in deep trouble. Down had been reduced temporarily to 14 men following a black card for David Ruddy in the 23rd minute, but Tyrone struggled to make any headway. Oisin Gormley and Gavin Potter getting the Tyrone’s scores.

Tyrone started the second half brightly with Conor Owens extremely unlucky to see his shot smash off the under side of the bar and out. Doran extended the Mourne county’s lead before Tyrone began to claw their way back into the game. Points from Ronan Cassidy and a brace from Owens brought Tyrone back into the contest. Luke Quinn scored for Down but Tyrone were dominating the Down restarts. However despite picking up plenty of breaking ball they continued to be wasteful in possession and in front of goal.

As the game entered its final quarter Cormac Devlin and Gavin Potter reduced the gap to two before Senan Carr registered his second of the evening. The introduction of Noah Grimes saw Tyrone go more direct at the Mournemen and Shea O’Hare almost levelled the tie but once again his well struck shot hit the crossbar and was ushered to safety with 5 minutes remaining. A third Potter point and a fisted effort from Grimes saw Tyrone push for the equaliser but in a rare breakaway Down won a free which was converted by Doran. Tyrone were now camped in the Down half. Conor Owens kicked a big score to leave the minimum in it and deep into injury time the recently introduced Callum Daly reacted quickest to fist over the bar to tie up the game. Conor Owens had one late chance to win the game but his long range free tailed off wide and the sides settled for a point apiece.

Tyrone C McAneney, J Clarke, B Hughes, Conor Devlin, S O’Hare, M Rafferty, O Brolly, R Fox, C O’Neill, Cormac Devlin (0-1), E McElholm, G Potter (0-3), R Cassidy (0-1 1f) C Owens (0-3 1f), O Gormley (0-1)

Subs N Grimes (0-1), C Daly (0-1), R McCullagh, C Donnelly