U20s bow out of All-Ireland after defeat to three-in-a-row chasing Tyrone
Kildare's Daniel Colbert shakes hands after the game with Conor O’Neill of Tyrone Photo:©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo
Kildare bowed out of the Delata Hotels All Ireland U20 championship when the went under to defending All Ireland champions, Tyrone, by four points at a breezy Breffni Park in Cavan on Wednesday night. Perhaps it was the exertions of winning the Leinster championship just a week ago but Kildare never played with the same energy that got them to the All-Ireland semi-final, especially in the first half. There was a marked improvement in the second half, although a killer second Tyrone goal in the 48th minute put paid to what would have been a remarkable comeback.
Kildare enjoyed the wind advantage, if that was a way to describe it, although they didn’t use this to their advantage and at times played like a team playing against the wind in the first 30 minutes. That was except for their first score when wing forward Jimmy Lynch float over an excellent left footed two pointer to give Kildare an early lead. The Leinster champions failed to build on this score and although it took until the sixth minute to open their account, Tyrone rattled off three points on the trot, two from Adrain McGurren for either wing, and the corner forward set up full forward Peter Colton for the lead for the Ulster champions in the ninth minute.
A minute later the sides were level for the second time in the game when Euan Cowzer floated over the first of his two first half points. That was to be the end of Kildare’s scoring for a full twenty minutes. They recorded three wides and dropped two short in those strange twenty minutes with Kildare’s only other score of the half coming from Cowzer on the 30th minute. In that twenty minute three in a row u20 All Ireland chasing Tyrone scored 1-3. Points came from wing back Aodhán Quinn and centre half forward Leo Hughes and the goal came from corner forward, Shea McDermott in the 28th minute, a blistering shot right into the top corner. Midfielder, Conor O’Neill finished out the half time scoring with a point to leave Kildare trailing, 0-4 to 1-6 at the break.
Kildare started the second more akin to the team that had been so impressive during their Leinster campaign and drove at Tyrone for the opening twelve minutes of the half by which time they had drawn level, 0-9 to 1-6. Four of those points came from Jimmy Lynch, including a free and a ’45 while Daniel Corbet and Ronan Kelly also obliged with white flags. Tyrone went into the lead briefly again in the 43rd minute through midfielder O’Neill but Lynch brought the sides level again with a point two minutes later. Disaster struck for Kildare in the 48th minute when a Charlie Carroll kick out went straight to Tyrone substitute, Darragh Donaghy, just seconds on the pitch, and he made no mistake. By the end of normal time Tyrone led by six again but a marvellous attempt at bringing parity again just fell short for Kildare in the six minutes of added time despite points from Ronan Kelly and substitute Rob Murray but the goal they craved never came and Tyrone finished the game with a point from Colton.
Oisín Watson; Seán Broderick, Luke Neeson, Michael McNamee; Aodhán Quinn 0-2, Conor Devlin, Brian Gallagher; Enda Donaghy 0-1, Conor O’Neill 0-2; Conall Sheehy, Leo Hughes 0-1, Turlough Muldoon; Adrian McGurran 0-2, Peter Colton 0-2, Shea McDermott 1-0. SUBS: Darragh Donaghy 1-0 for Turlough Muldoon 46, Darragh Devlin 0-1 for Adrain McGurren 54, Ruairi McCullagh for Leo Hughes 57, Aidan Colton for Conall Sheehy 65.
Charlie Carroll; Cian McKevitt, Liam Kelly, Senan Gallagher; Calum Keaveny, Finn Dowling, Ben Ryan; Evan Boyle, Ruaidhrí Lawlor; Daniel Colbert 0-1, Liam Kenny, Jimmy Lynch 0-6 (1 free, 1 X 45); Euan Cowzer 0-2, Colm Moran, Ronan Kelly 0-3 (1 free). SUBS: Rob Murray 0-1 for Cian McKevitt 50, Cian Keaveny for Euan Cowzer 50, Austin Donegan for Liam Kenny 55, Harry Redmond for Calum Keaveny 55.
Barry Tiernan (Dublin)
