TYRONE AND KERRY both made their way through to next weekend’s Eirgrid All-Ireland U20 final with wins over Meath and Roscommon respectively this afternoon, but they did so in sharply contrasting styles – Tyrone overwhelming Roscommon in a frantic contest at Kingspan Breffni, while Kerry’s inability to convert any one of three good goal chances almost allowed Meath to snatch a result from their clash in Thurles.
Paul Devlin’s Ulster champions had 11 scorers in total at the end of a game where Roscommon asked them plenty of tough questions, but on each occasion, the Ulster champions came up with resounding answers and were full value for their 3-18 to 3-8 win.
Shane McGinley didn’t waste any time in leaving his mark on the game, kicking things off with a stunning early goal and following up with a point to put Roscommon three up, but Tyrone didn’t blink and just set about playing fast, skilful and effective attacking football.
With Eoin McElholm pulling the strings and Ruairí Campbell firing over some excellent points, they were level at 0-4 to 1-1 after six minutes, and only kicked on from there.
Tyrone pushed up high on the Roscommon kickout, bringing their midfielders and half-backs into the attack, and it proved very fruitful. Both midfielders and both wing backs got on the scoresheet, with the goals coming from Conor O’Neill and Shea O’Hare, as Tyrone moved 2-9 to 1-5 in front at half-time.
Roscommon had been a second-half team all year and it looked like they were about to do the same here as Conor Ryan and Bobby Nugent found the net in the space of just two minutes shortly after half-time.
A couple of key wides prevented them from drawing level however, and once Tyrone settled back into the game on the back of two long range dead ball strikes from goalkeeper Conor McAneney, they never looked back.
Eoin McElholm finished off a slick breakaway with a sumptuous low finish midway through the half, and Roscommon had nothing left in the tank, with six of the last eight points going the way of the northerners.
Meath were the side that made the faster start at FBD Semple Stadium, responding to the concession of a point to Eddie Healy in the first minute with four of their own in the next five, including two from Hughie Corcoran.
When Jamie Murphy kicked the first of his five points for the Royals it was 0-5 to 0-4 with just nine minutes played, but the scoring dried up from there. Meath went 16 minutes without scoring while Luke Crowley kicked the pick of the scores as Kerry worked their way into a narrow 0-8 to 0-7 lead at the break.
In a tense second half, Kerry never trailed but never led by more than two either, with Oisín McDermott keeping Meath in it by making one particularly outstanding save to deny Tomás Kennedy.
Substitute Paddy Lane proved to be the match winner as he came on to make it 0-12 to 0-10 in the 46th minute, and in a very tense final quarter, the only additional score was a free from Murphy to leave just the bare minimum in it at the death.