Ulster U21 FC: Donegal too hot for Tyrone
March 20, 2013
Ciaran Cannon of Donegal and Ronan O'Neill of Tyrone fight for possession.
©INPHO/Presseye/Andrew Paton.
Man of the Match McBrearty (0-7) opened the scoring from a free and Darren McCurry levelled from play in the third minute. Odhran Mac Niallais restored the visitor's early advantage.
McBrearty's second free doubled Donegal's lead and Willie Gillespie made it 0-4 to 0-1. Conan Grugan pulled one back for the O'Neill County.
McBrearty and Ronan O'Neill swapped points as Donegal led 0-6 to 0-3 and that man McBrearty was on target again to edge the Tir Chonail men into a four-point lead.
But the complexion of the game changed temporarily when Tyrone wing back Stefan Tierney dived to fist the ball to the back of the Donegal net approaching half time: 1-3 to 0-7.
Conor Gibbons pointed for Donegal to leave them two in front at the break, 0-8 to 1-3.
McCurry and McBrearty swapped the first two points after the restart and, when Ronan O'Neill again closed the gap to the minimum, it was once more full forward McBrearty who replied - a 40th-minute point from play to leave the score at 0-10 to 1-5.
Substitute Darach O'Connor and Gibbons doubled Donegal's lead to four points, 0-12 to 1-5. Tyrone were in trouble and three wides in as many minutes certainly didn't help their cause!
McCurry and Luke Keeney swapped overs before Gibbons and Eoin McHugh put Donegal six clear.
Centre back Conor Clarke hit the post in the 60th-minute going for a Tyrone goal and midfielder Richard Donnelly was sent off with a second yellow card in injury time.
Donegal - P Boyle; K McFadden, C Cannon, P Carr; E McHugh (0-1), M O'Reilly, C Parke; C Ward, L Keeney (0-1); L Kelly, C Gibbons (0-3, 1f), R McHugh; W Gillespie (0-1), P McBrearty (0-7, 4f), O MacNiallais (0-1). Subs: D O'Connor (0-1) for Carr, G Gallagher for Gillespie, Carr for Parke.
Tyrone - M McReynolds; R Loughran, C Clarke, H P McGeary; S Tierney (1-0), D Quinn, J Munroe; R Donnelly, C Grugan (0-1); L Gervin, R O'Neill (0-2f), N Sludden; D McCurry (0-3), P McNulty, R Devlin. Subs: T McCarron for McGeary, H Conlan for Devlin, K McGeary for McNulty, T Canavan for Tierney, E Deeney for Munroe.
Referee - N Mooney. Tweet
