Minor footballers edged out by Derry

DERRY 0-17 DUBLIN 0-14

Dublin's minor All-Ireland dream was ended on Sunday when Derry finished stronger down the home stretch to progress to the All-Ireland MFC decider.

The young Dubs gave their all and were left to rue a number of scoring positions in both halves that they failed to turn into scores and had the better goal-scoring situations over the hour.

The absence of James Madden through injury was also keenly felt as his athleticism and goal-scoring threat could have been key on this occasion.

Despite falling behind to a Ross McGarry point in the opening minute, Derry overcame that early deficit thanks to a brace of points from Patrick Quigg.

Although David Lacey levelled matters in the eighth minute, Dublin were struggling to gain a foothold in the early stages and fell three points behind by the 11th minute following scores by Quigg, Lorcan McWilliams and Mark McGrogan.

However, the Dubs gradually began to play with a greater degree of cohesion and successive points by Lacey and the outstanding James Doran reflected their increasing comfort with proceedings.

A Ben McCarron point regained Derry’s two-point buffer by the 21st minute but with Doran increasingly influential from centre-forward, gaps began to appear down the heart of the Derry defence.

Doran’s second point of the half and scores by Lacey and McGarry inched the Dubs ahead with the former adding an injury-time point to eke out a narrow 0-8 to 0-7 interval lead for Dublin.

Dublin dominated on the restart but could have had more to show on the scoreboard than the points tallied by Seán Hawkshaw and Doran.

Derry levelled matters through a 37th minute point from Oisin McWilliams.

While Dublin replied through Doran and Lacey, the momentum was swinging back towards Derry with Lorcan McWilliams and Richie Mullan bringing the sides level once again.

Derry made the push for home in a telling manner with sub Callum Brown taking the challenge to the Dubs and they confirmed their final berth thanks to injury-time points by Lorcan McWilliams and substitute Jon Paul Devlin.

SCORERS – Derry: L McWilliams 0-6 (0-5f), P Quigg 0-4 (0-3f), B McCarron 0-3 (0-2f), O McWilliams, R Mullan, M McGrogan, JP Devlin 0-1 each. Dublin: J Doran 0-6, D Lacey 0-5 (0-4f), R McGarry 0-2, S Hawkshaw 0-1.

DERRY: O Hartin; S McKeever, C McCluskey, O McGill; S McErlain, P McGrogan, C McShane; O McWilliams, D Rafferty; P Quigg, R Mullan, O Quinn; B McCarron, L McWilliams, M McGrogan. Subs: F Mortimer for Rafferty (30), C Brown for Quinn (33), D Cassidy for Quigg (36), M Bradley for McErlain (56), JP Devlin for McCarron (59), T McHugh for O McWilliams (64).

DUBLIN: D O’Hanlon; D Maher, P Ó Cofaigh Byrne, L Flatman; K Kennedy, N Matthews, E O’Dea; D Ryan, M Tracey; D Brennan, J Doran, K Lynch Bissett; D Lacey, S Hawkshaw, R McGarry. Subs: F O’Sullivan for Brennan (40), C Archer for Hawkshaw (47), G Nangle for Ó Cofaigh Byrne (52), A Byrne for Lynch Bissett (59), L Doran for Maher (62), N O’Leary for Kennedy (65, Black Card).

REF: S Lonergan (Tipperary).