Tyrone 1-11 Donegal 0-09
Tyrone won back-to-back Ulster U20 Football Championship titles with a storming second-half display at Clones, with Darragh Canavan's goal killing off Donegal’s challenge.
After playing with a strong wind in the opening half, they led by just a point at the break, but the holders produced controlled and confident football after the restart, with Ethan Jordan making a massive contributuion with five points from play.
Now it’s a St Patrick’s Day date with the Dubs, who reached the last four with a comfortable win over Laois.
Tyrone had just a point to show for their dominance of the opening stages, midfielder Kevin Barker splitting the posts, but Donegal advanced from their defensive set-up for Padraig McGettigan to get their opening score from their first attack in the seventh minute.
They went ahead through Aaron Doherty, and with Cormac Finn and Keelan McGroddy probing from deep, they had the Red Hands on the back foot.
But Donegal’s short handpassing game carried an element of risk, and they were almost punished when Joe Oguz intercepted to send Darragh Canavan away, with Ethan Jordan finishing the counter-attack with a shot which broght a fine save from Ronan McGeehin.
Oguz had the holders level by the end of the opening quarter, and while Jordan edged them back in front, a contest increasingly dominated by defences struggled to deliver scores.
Donegal, who had played into a gusting breeze, had most reason to feel satisfied with their first-half efforts as corner back Paul O’Hare split the posts to leave them just a point behind at the break, 0-04 to 0-03.
Keelan McGroddy’s suerpb ling range point nudged Tir Chonail ahead, but during Oisin Walsh’s ten minutes in the sin bin, the Red Hands tagged on five points as they pressed relentlessly.
Two each from Tiarnan Quinn and Jordan had them two ahead, but Donegal were dangerous on the break, and were denied a goal when Lorcan Quinn pushed Doherty’s screaming shot onto a post.
Moments later, Tyrone were also denied by the butt of an upright, Tiernan Quinn desperately unlucky not to see his shot ripple the bottom corner of the net
The ball was recycled to Jordan, who fired over another point to put four between the teams, and in the 49th minute came the crucial score.
Jordan’s shot was saved by goalkeeper McGeehin, and Canavan nipped in to crash the ball to the roof of the net from the rebound.
Now ahead by seven, there was to be no catching the defending provincial champions, although Donegal did send over late scores through Doherty (2) and Padraig McGettigan.
But they finished the game with 13 men, following a black card for Conor McHugh and straight red for skipper Luke Gavigan.
Tyrone: L Quinn; C Quinn, C Munroe, M McCusker; N Kilpatrick, A Fox, J McCann; K Barker (0-01), J Oguz (0-02), T Donaghy, D Canavan (1-00), M Gallagher; E Jordan (0-05), M Murnaghan, T Quinn (0-02, 1f).
Subs: R Jones for Donaghy (h-t), S Garrity for Gallagher (51), L Gray (0-01) for Oguz (56), C Slevin for Jordan (61), E Devlin for Kilpatrick (61)
Donegal: R McGeehin; O Walsh, C O’Donnell, P O’Hare (0-01); C Finn, L Gavigan (0-01), M Duffy; R O’Donnell, R O’Rourke; P McEniff, A Doherty (0-03, 1f)) K McGroddy (0-01); R Frain, P McGettigan (0-02, 1f), E Harkin.
Subs: C McHugh for O’Hare (37), J McGroddy (0-01, mark) for Harkin (41), E Carr for Frain (45), L Molloy for O’Rourke (53), R Brogan for Walsh (57).
