Michael Murphy scored 0-6 and caused endless problems for the Tipperary defence as Donegal booked their place in the Cadbury All-Ireland U21FC final at Parnell Park last night.

Donegal 0-12
Tipperary 0-4

First-time Munster champions Tipperary's hopes suffered a huge blow when their captain Ciaran McDonald was sent off two minutes after the restart for his second bookable offence on the big Donegal full forward. Thereafter, Jim McGuinness' charges made the most of their numerical advantage to pull away for what was a comfortable victory in the end.

Played before a disappointing crowd, the game was slow to come to life and the first score didn't arrive until the 10th minute when Murphy slotted over a free after he had been fouled. Leo McLoone scored the first half's only point from play soon afterwards, with Micheal O'Dwyer replying from a free for the Premier County.

Murphy missed a decent goal chance for the Ulster champions while, at the other end, Peter Boyle denied Tipp half forward Aldo Mattassa. Derek Molloy added a point from a free to leave Donegal 0-3 to 0-1 ahead at the interval.

Whatever hope John Evans' side had of staging a comeback were dashed with full back McDonald's dismissal. That said, it wasn't until the final quarter that Donegal put the result beyond doubt through scores from Murphy, James Carroll and Molloy.

Scorers - Donegal: M Murphy 0-6 (3f), D Molloy 0-3 (1f), J Carroll 0-2, L McLoone 0-1. Tipperary: S Carey 0-2 (1f), M O'Dwyer (1f), A Moloney 0-1 each.

Donegal: P Boyle; E Doherty, C Boyle, P McGrath; D Walsh, T McKinley, C Classon; K Mulhern, D Curran; M McHugh, D Molloy L McLoone; A McFadden, M Murphy, D McLaughlin. Subs: J Carroll for D McLaughlin (h-t), P McNelis for T McKinley (46), S O'Kennedy for D Curran (60), C Morrisions for A McFadden (60), D Murphy for P McGrath (60).

Tipperary: K Kenrick; R Kiely, C McDonald, D Lynch; P O'Dwyer, J Coghlan, D Dwyer; A Moloney, P Acheson; S Carey, B O'Brien, A Matassa; C Sweeney, S Egan, M O'Dwyer. Subs: P McEvoy for M O'Dwyer (h-t), T Hanly for A Matassa (46), B O'Meara for Egan (48), G Ryan for Brien (55), D Heffernan for Carey (60).

Referee: D Brazil (Offaly). Tweet

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