Kerry 1-24

Derry 2-10

Kerry booked their place into the semi-finals of the All-Ireland minor football championship this afternoon after a resounding second-half display against Derry at Croke Park.

Peter Keane's charges responded to the concession of two late first-half goals by outscoring their northern counterparts by 1-12 to 0-4 in the second period, with inspiration captain Sean O'Shea notching his goal early on in the restart.

Derry had enjoyed the better start to this quarter-final, moving 0-3 to 0-1 in front after seven minutes thanks to points from Patrick Coney, Caolan Devlin and Seamus Higgins.

Scores from O'Shea and Michael Potts brought the Kingdom level and despite the concession of a Patrick Quigg goal at the other end, they'd surge five points clear as their imperious skipper got into his rhythm during a profitable the second quarter spell.

The young Ulster men responded with a splendid individual goal from Feargal Higgins and tacked on points in injury time - one of them a fine effort from Eoghan Concannon - to leave the sides all square (0-12 to 2-6) at the interval.

Keane's side enjoyed the perfect restart when O'Shea cut through the Oak Leafers' rear-guard and smashed to the net, bringing his personal tally to 1-4, and from there the Munster champions took over as scores from Brian Friel, Darragh Moynihan (2) and David Shaw quickly followed.

Feargal Higgins pulled back a brace of points for the Damian McErlain's men, but there was no catching their opponents at that stage as they raised nine more white flags to up their tally and stay on course for a third All-Ireland crown in as many years.

The Kingdom now await the winners of tomorrow's clash in Tullamore between Mayo and Leinster champions Kildare (throw-in 2pm).

Kerry - B Courtney; D Naughton, G O'Sullivan, N Collins; M Potts (0-1), D O'Brien (0-2), M Foley; M Breen (0-1), M Ryan (0-1); B Sweeney, S O'Shea (1-6, 0-1f), D Moynihan (0-1); F O'Brien, D Shaw (0-5), D Clifford (0-5). Subs: B Friel (0-1) for F O'Brien, C Teahan (0-1) for B Sweeney, S Okunbar for M Ryan, K Dwyer for M Potts, C Linnane for D Moynihan, T O'Connor for D Clifford.

Derry - B McKinless; C McCluskey, G McLaughlin, A Bradley; S McErlain, E Concannon, P McGrogan (0-1); P Coney (0-3), C Doherty; S Higgins (0-1), C Devlin (0-3f), P Quigg (1-0); S Downey, F Higgins (1-2, 0-1f), E Bradley. Subs: O McKeever for E Concannon, O McWilliams for S Downey, S Mortimer for G McLaughlin, R Young for C Doherty, L Kielt for E Bradley, J P Devlin for C McCluskey.

Referee - J Hickey.

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