Under 20s Through To Final

Saturday 01.06.2019

County

Tyrone under 20s qualified for the final of the Philly Mc Guinness Cup following a superb team display at Healy Park on Saturday afternoon. Mayo came into the game as strong favourites following two very convincing wins over Donegal and Roscommon.

Tyrone were well aware of the challenge they faced but with home advantage knew they were well capable of getting the better of their highly fancied opponents.

No doubt Sean Òg Mc Aleer and Darragh Canavan will get most of the plaudits for the way they combined to create mayhem in the opposition rearguard but this was a team victory with every man playing his part to the full.

Sheer determination and no shortage of skill created a goal chance for Darragh Canavan in the second minute and the Errigal forward duly obliged with an exquisite finish that set the tone for the rest of the afternoon.

Sean Òg Mc Aleer hit the net midway through the half after a strong run and finish. Mc Aleer, Tiernan Quinn and Ryan Jones added points as Tyrone produced a very dominant first thirty minutes. Mayo were not allowed to settle on the ball and superb Tyrone defending from Antoin Fox, Mark Mc Kearney and James Garrity resulted in numerous first half turnovers.

Tyrone captain Ruairi Gormley opened the scoring in the second half but Mayo substitute John Gallagher cancelled that with a fine strike for the Westerners.The Red Hands continued to work hard and time after time they forced Mayo into mistakes leading to possession being coughed up. On such a clammy day it was no surprise that players began to tire and manager Paul Devlin ran the bench.

In spite of the changes Tyrone continued to look the more dominant side and Sean Og Mc Aleer’s well crafted second goal ensured that it would be Tyrone who would make it through to the final. In fairness to Mayo they fought to the end with Gallagher scoring his team’s last four points.

Final score: Tyrone 3-9, Mayo 0-11