Tyrone 1-12
Roscommon 0-13
TYRONE WILL PLAY Mayo in the All-Ireland minor football championship final on 22 September after a two-point win over Roscommon this afternoon.
After the sides traded points in the opening stages, Roscommon had the game’s first real goal chance when Rhys Quinn hauled down Diarmuid Murtagh after great work by Ultan Harney to turn Frank Burns in the build up.
Sean Fox got down low to his right to palm away Diarmuid McGann’s penalty though and the Connacht side had to settle for a point from the resulting 45.
The sides were level at three points apiece midway through the first half before scores from McGann (two) and Henry Walsh gave Roscommon a deserved 0-6 to 0-3 lead at the break.
Roscommon stretched that lead straight after the break through a Ronan Daly point but going four down seemed to finally wake Tyrone from their slumber and, after Conor McKenna had cut the gap to three with a point on 36 minutes, he drew the game level with a brilliant goal after splitting the Roscommon defence and giving goalkeeper Shane Mannion no chance.
The goal turned the semi final on its head and, though the sides exchanged scores for most of the rest of the second half, it was Mickey Donnelly’s men who finished the stronger, McKenna and Christopher Morris getting the last two scores to send Tyrone into the All-Ireland final.
Scorers for Tyrone: C McKenna 1-4 (1f), P Donnelly (1f), L Brennan 0-2, C Morris, C McShane, S McGrath all 0-1.
Scorers for Roscommon: D Murtagh 0-4 (1f), D McGann 0-3 (3f), R Daly 0-2, T O’Rourke, H Walsh, U Harney, C Compton.
Tyrone: Sean Fox; Colm Byrne, Rhys Quinn, Cillian McCann; Shea Hamill, Christopher Morris, Padraig McGirr; Ronan Nugent, Frank Burns; Philip Donnelly, Conor McKenna, Ruairi McGlone (c); Lee Brennan, Daire Gallagher, Stephen McGrath.
Substitutes: David Mulgrew for D Gallagher (38), C McShane for P Donnelly (38), Tiarnan Donnelly for R McGlone (53), Michael Lynn for P McGirr (60), Kevin Coney for C Byrne.
Roscommon: Shane Mannion; David Neary, Sean Mullooly, Martin Flannery; Ronan Daly (c), Evan McGrath, Eoin Fallon; Cathal Compton, Ultan Harney; Tadhg O’Rourke, Jack Earley, Senan Farrell; Henry Walsh, Diarmuid McGann, Diarmuid Murtagh.
Substitutes: Michael Murtagh for J Earley (52).
A legend ,one of the most underated forwards ever to play in the PL,Never let the side down.
Tasty player when on form. Far from world class but had a proven record of getting you into the premiership. Say he collected many the end of season bonus.
He had a brilliant strike partnership with Niall Quinn at Sunderland. Big man-little man combination worked a treat for them. Similar to Niall and Robbie for Ireland.
Only English player to ever win the European Golden Boot. A Sunderland legend
Good little player, but about time!!