Tyrone U20s Start With A Win

Sunday 26.05.2019

County

Tyrone 2-18 Donegal 2-10

Tyrone Under 20 footballers got their competitive season off to a good start with a deserved eight point win over Donegal.

Paul Devlin’s team showed great heart and commitment as they produced a superb team display to get the better of their highly fancied opponents.

Playing wind assisted Tyrone opened the scoring with a fine Conal Grimes point in the second minute but were rocked back on their heels when Donegal captain Peadar Mogán finished to the net thirty seconds later. Four different players for Tyrone, D Canavan, Sean Òg Mc Aleer, J Garrity and T Quinn added points to put Tyrone two clear seven minutes in.

Donegal added two scores of their own before Tyrone showed their class with six unanswered points to move 0-11 to 1-2 in front. Conor O’Donnell and Grimes swapped scores as Tyrone led by six with half time rapidly approaching.

Just when it seemed Tyrone would go in at half time six ahead they were caught napping following the concession of a free in the middle of the field. Colin Mc Fadden capitalised on the gaps in the Tyrone rearguard to palm the ball to the net for his team’s second major and Donegal went in at the break buoyed by their good fortune.

Tyrone needed to make a good start to the second half and they did just that. Some fine play created two chances of goals inside the opening forty five seconds of the half. The highly impressive Sean Ôg Mc Aleer’s fisted effort looked bound for the net but for a superb save by Donegal keeper Eoin O’Boyle. However the Gortin youngster made up for that missed opportunity twenty seconds later when he struck low and hard to the net to put his team eight clear.

The Red Hands never looked back after that score and team captain Ruairi Gormley, midfielder Joe Oguz and wing forward Mark Mc Kearney were immense as they constructed a barrier that Donegal struggled to breech.

With Antoin Fox, Conall Grimes, Aidan Clark and Peadar Mullan working hard Donegal found little space or time on the ball. They did add seven points to their first half tally during the second period but substitute Peter Òg Mc Cartan and Liam Nugent kept the scoreboard turning admirably for the Red Hands and Tyrone recorded their first win in the competition.

Tyrone scorers. Sean Òg Mc Aleer 1-7, Conall Grimes 0-2, Tiernan Quinn 0-1, James Garrity 0-1, Darragh Canavan 0-3, Joe Oguz 0-1, Antoin Fox 1-0, Peter Òg Mc Cartan 0-2, Liam Nugent 0-1.