Football

Tyrone U20 side over-hauled by Dublin fightback in All-Ireland semi-final

Coalisland forward Tiarnan Quinn scored the Tyrone goal in Saturday's semi-final. Picture: Seamus Loughran.
Coalisland forward Tiarnan Quinn scored the Tyrone goal in Saturday's semi-final. Picture: Seamus Loughran. Coalisland forward Tiarnan Quinn scored the Tyrone goal in Saturday's semi-final. Picture: Seamus Loughran.

All-Ireland U20 Football Championship semi-final: Tyrone 1-12 Dublin 1-14

FOR the second year in-a-row, the Tyrone U20s ran out of steam on the home straight and missed out on a place in the All-Ireland final.

Last season it was Cork who stopped their charge, on Saturday it was defending champions Dublin who rallied in the second half after Tyrone had looked the better team in the first. With Rory Donnelly, Antoin Fox, Simon Garrity, Darragh Canavan and Tiarnan Quinn all impressing, the Red Hand youngsters deservedly led by two points at the interval but they found the Dubs much harder to break down in the second period.

Paul Devlin’s side managed just one point from play after the break and there was an air of inevitability about the way Dublin reeled them and got their noses in front thanks to some excellent finishing from full-forward Ciaran Archer and Mark Lavin, down the right wing. Devlin and Dermot Carlin ran their bench but they were unable to conjure up the required kick for home out of their side.

“We missed too many chances when we had the chance to push on,” said the Tyrone manager.

“Dublin are a quality team. They closed us down well as the game went on and when they got their noses in front they kicked well.”

The Tyrone management had done their homework on Dublin and their players ran themselves into the ground. Afterwards Devlin said he couldn’t have asked any more of his players and vowed to return in 2021.

“The lads have been putting a serious effort in considering what has happened this last six or seven months,” he said.

“We’ll dust ourselves down and we’ll come back next year, there’s a fair few of the boys underage next year and they’ll come back again. This is about bringing these lads on to play in these competitions at this stage, guiding them through and getting as many lads through to the senior team as possible.

“You’d like to see them pushing on when the time is right for them. It’s a big step from U20s to senior, you see that with the conditioning. The goal for us in Tyrone is to keep developing and this is where you want to be – against the Dublins and Kerrys and Galways. That’s where we see Tyrone.”

Darragh Canavan gave Tyrone the lead with the first of three first half points but Dublin were quickly on level terms and then their burly full-forward Luke Swan played in Brian O’Leary who cracked a shot past Lorcan Quinn. Swan was the provider again when Mark Lavin made it 1-3 to 0-3 but Tyrone wrestled back the initiative with a mixture of hard work, composure and class.

Canavan clipped over his second and then Simon Garrity picked the pocket of a Dublin defender and played in Donnelly. His shot was saved but Tiarnan Quinn stuck the rebound into the net. Ethan Jordan (like goalkeeper Quinn a superb striker of a dead ball) and Canavan added three more points between them but Dublin dangerman Archer, who’d been kept quiet by Cormac Quinn up to then, popped up with a brace before the break to leave it 1-7 to 1-5.

Having come off second best in an open game, the Dubs pressed high up the pitch in the second half, forcing Tyrone to play through them and hard work replaced the fluency of the first period. Two points from Jordan (a 45 and a free) sent them three ahead but Archer (last season’s Player of the Year) and Lavin kept the Dubs hot on their heels.

Lorcan O’Dell equalised with seven minutes to go and another from Archer edged Dublin ahead and Lee Gannon’s roar of delight rang around the empty stadium when he landed the final score of the game.

It was tough on Tyrone – but they’ll keep fighting, vowed Devlin.

“Our lads put a big shift in and that’s all you can ask of them,” he said.

“We’ll see a lot more of these lads. These boys are not going away, they’ll be around Tyrone football for a long time – they’ll go back to their club a better player or they’ll push on and make the step up to the next level.

“Tyrone is a big place and we’re very, very proud of where we’re from and we’ll take our defeat today and we’ll come back again. We’ll keep pushing on to get Tyrone to the top of the table.”

Dublin go on to a final meeting with Galway this weekend and manager Tom Gray said: “It wasn’t a perfect performance but they showed really good control and got some very good scores.

“There’s two points in it and that’s nothing in a game of football. There’s no way anybody should think that Dublin are a better team than Tyrone because I’d say they’re about the same standard.

“There are some fantastic footballers in that Tyrone team and no doubt we’ll see a few of them in the Tyrone senior team in years to come.

“I’m very hopeful that some of our lads will make the big step too.”

MATCH STATS


Dublin: J O'Neill; C Tyrrell, A Rafter, J Bannon; M O'Leary, A Waddick, L Gannon (0-1); A Fearon, Sean Foran; M Lavin (0-3), L O'Dell (0-2), S Lowry (0-1); C Archer (0-6, 0-3 frees), L Swan, B O'Leary (1-1).

Subs: R Dwyer for Foran (HT), K McKeon for Fearon (42), P Purcell for Lowry (62).

Blood sub: E Caulfield for Fearon (10-14)

Tyrone: L Quinn; C Devlin, C Munroe, C Quinn; A Fox, M Gallagher, J McCann; K Barker, R Donnelly; T Donaghy, T Quinn (1-3, 0-2 frees), E Jordan (0-5, 0-3 frees, 0-1 45); D Canavan (0-3, 0-1 mark), S Garrity (0-1), M Murnaghan.

Subs: R Jones for Donaghy (28), M Hayes for Garrity (43), J Oguz for Barker (48), L Gray for Donnelly (58 mins).

Referee: Barry Judge (Sligo).