Bord Gais Energy Ulster U21 Hurling Championship final: Derry 0-17 Antrim 1-19
HOT favourites Antrim scored three of the last four points in the closing five minutes to win last night’s keenly contested Ulster U21 final in Ballinascreen.
But it took an excellent save from ’keeper Colin Hayden in the final minute from Cormac O’Doherty’s 20-metre free to preserve the five-point advantage.
Derry took the lead from a Declan Foley free in the first minute but, although the Na Magha star added two more points from placed balls, and Tiarnan McCloskey put Derry 0-2 to 0-1 ahead in the fifth minute, that was as good as it would get for the Oak Leaf county.
A blistering shot from Conor Johnson two minutes later put the Saffrons 1-1 to 0-2 ahead, the St John’s player having opened their scoring from a free.
But despite that goal, a determined Derry came back strongly and Foley pointed six frees and one from a 65 to bring Derry back on level terms at half-time at 0-10 to 1-7.
Eoghan Campbell put Antrim in front with a wonderful point from 50 metres, Niall McKenna then scoring the first of his two second half points to edge Antrim further ahead.
A tremendous steal from Eoghan Campbell by Mark McGuigan, garnished by a sensational strike from 60 metres roused the Derry fans, Saul McCaughan firing Antrim’s 12th wide of the game in the 48th minute when the lead was just three points.
Four minutes from time, Antrim captain Ryan McCambridge was penalised for over-carrying the sliothar and Foley landed his 11th placed ball to leave just two between the sides.
An acute angled point from Johnson settled Antrim’s jangling nerves,with Dudley and Maol Connolly closing out the game with late points.
In the final analysis, Derry did exceptionally well to run Antrim so close but undoubtedly Antrim’s greater fire-power, even with 14 wides, ensured a deserved win.
When it was suggested that the game might have been a lot more difficult than Antrim might have thought coming into it Antrim manager Kevin Ryan disagreed.
“No I don’t think so, but there were goals there for the taking and we didn’t take them. But we absolutely got what we expected to get from Derry,” he said.
“But a lot of the better players from the minor championship team of three years ago are gone, so I never thought that we were going to have a handy game. The pitch did not suit our style of hurling.”
Over the hour, Antrim shot 14 wides and Ryan commented: “We had a lot of chances and that showed our dominance, but when the lads think that they – I won’t say are going to have it handy – but are going to go on and win well, then you start taking chances and start to take shots that you shouldn’t be taking.
“That was the most frustrating thing about it, not that we weren’t getting away from Derry, but that we were not using the ball as we were supposed to do.”
Antrim made three changes at half-time when the sides were level, and Ryan admitted that they were out of concern for losing a man in the second half.
“We made two of them because lads had yellow cards and we were worried about that,” he said.
“But those two lads could have come back on had we felt that we really needed them. I suppose it was more tactical than out of concern.
“But we were concerned. We were concerned coming here. We absolutely took nothing for granted.”
MATCH STATS
Derry: C Owens; C Quinn, J McCullagh, S Doyle; M McGrath, M Mulgrew, E McGill; T McCloskey (0-1), G Bradley (0-1); B Rogers (0-1), M McGuigan (0-1), D Foley (0-11, 0-10 frees, 0-1 65); J O’Dwyer, C O’Doherty (0-2) frees, B Douban
Substitutes: B Laverty for T McCloskey (55)
Antrim: C Hayden; J McGoldrick, P Burke, T Burns; E Campbell (0-2), R McCambridge, M Connolly (0-1); D O’Hara, M Dudley (0-3); P McBride, J Connolly (0-3, 0-1 65), N McKenna (0-3); C Johnson (1-4, 0-2 frees), T Ó’Ciaran, S McCaughan (0-2)
Substitutes: S McBride for D O’Hara (h-t), C Ross (0-1) for T Ó’Ciaran (h-t), D Murphy for P McBride (h-t), D Traynor for D Murphy (67)
Referee: J Clarke (Cavan)
