Donegal and Tyrone do battle once more, with Ulster minor final place at stake
Luke Barrett's side take on the Red Hands at Celtic Park later
Here we go again for Donegal and Tyrone, who meet in another big shootout - this time in the Ulster Minor championship semi-final tonight.
The game, which is a repeat of last year’s final clash, takes place in Celtic Park, throw-in 7pm. Tyrone are the reigning Ulster and All-Ireland champions and have already claimed silverware this season when they won the Ulster Minor League, which they claimed with a one-point win over Derry.
Last Saturday, their U-20 side were also All-Ireland winners, overcoming Kildare in Carrick-on-Shannon. Donegal ran them close in Ulster but a bit like the seniors last summer, Tyrone took home the trophy.
Donegal, at minor level, have had a mixed season so far they lost once in the league at the group stages and once in the championship. After a 4-15 to 0-5 win over Fermanagh, in the first round they were well beaten by Derry, in the second round, in Owenbeg.
However they bounced back with a good win over Monaghan in a third round qualifier against Monaghan last weekend, although would’ve been a tad nervous as a 16-point lead whittled down to three at one stage in the second half. But all was well that ended well.
KJ Molloy, Daithi Gildea, Conor McGinty and Cian McGee scored the goals in the 4-12 to 3-7 win over the Farney boys. All the goals were scored in the first half with Monaghan netting two of their three in the second period.
It was encouraging too that Donegal had nine different scorers against Monaghan with Lorcan McGee, Cian McMenamin, Mark McDevitt, Sean Martin, and Sean McLaughlin all getting in on the scoring act.
“We will hope to build on the Monaghan win now for Tyrone which is going to pose a tough challenge,” said the Donegal manager Luke Barrett.
Tyrone have chalked up big scores in the two games in the championship so far. They were eight point winners over Fermanagh, in their 3-17 to 1-15 win and they were 3-17 to 0-5 winners over Antrim, in their last outing.
“We know what we are going to get from Tyrone,” Barrett said. “They have been the standard bearers in Ulster for the best part of the last 15 years and they have dominated the championship over the last few years,” said the Donegal boss who is playing a low key approach ahead of Saturday night’s latest episode of Donegal versusTyrone showdown on the banks of the Foyle. Derry and Cavan meet in the other semi-final.