Ulster U21FC: holders Cavan eliminate Derry
March 12, 2014
Cavan and Derry met in tonight's only Ulster U21FC game played in Celtic Park.
Next up for the four-in-a-row-chasing Breffni County is a home tie against Tyrone next Wednesday night.
The impressive holders led by two goals at the break tonight thanks to strikes from Joe Dillon and Enda Flanagan, 2-5 to 0-5.
Cavan got off to a dream start when Dillon opened the scoring with a goal after the ball had rebounded off a post and the match was then held up for seven minutes due to an injury to Derry corner back Declan Brown, who received a round of applause from his team-mates as he was stretchered from the field.
Dillon and Paul Graham pointed to increase the holders' lead to five points; James Kearney opened the Oak Leaf County's account with a fantastic strike from distance and Brian Og McGilligan quickly made it a three-point match, 1-2 to 0-2.
Mickey Argue responded in style with a brace of brilliant Breffni points and Derry's Anthony O'Neill won and converted a free to leave four between them after 30 minutes. But seven minutes of injury time were added at the end of the first half…
O'Neill followed up with his second successive point but, in the fourth added minute, Flanagan got on the end of a Dillon flick to provide the visitors' second goal: 2-4 to 0-4. Kearney replied with a much-needed Derry point but Argue's third point of the night left six between them at the short whistle, 2-5 to 0-5.
To their credit, Derry made a game of it after the restart but Cavan were simply not going to be reeled in…
Kevin Bouchier and Conor Madden pointed for the winners either side of a Kearney brace; a Ryan Bell free for the home team reduced the gap to five points after 40 minutes.
Argue replied with a fantastic score for the Breffni boys and Cavan then punctuated seven scoreless minutes in real style as Graham netted their third goal on 48 minutes - 3-8 to 0-8 and game over!
Bell (free), Neil McNicholl and Kearney (free) supplied three successive Derry scores to close the gap to six with as many minutes left on the clock, 3-8 to 0-11.
Graham pointed for the visitors in the last minute of normal time and injury-time points were swapped, with Graham again on target for the winners to bring his total for the night to 1-3.
Cavan - J Farrelly; B Fortune, K Clarke, P Faulkner; G Smith, C Moynagh, D McVitty; B Sankey, M Argue (0-4); P Graham (1-3), J Dillon (1-1), C Brady; C Madden (0-1), K Bouchier (0-1f), E Flanagan (1-0). Subs: N O'Donnell for C Madden, A Watson for B Fortune, C Byrne for K Bouchier, L Buchanan for M Argue, E Hessin for N O'Donnell, J McCabe for G Smith.
Derry - S McNicholl; F Duffin, G McKinless, D Brown; C Carville, L McGoldrick, C McAtamney; B Og McGilligan (0-1), N Rocks; J Kearney (0-5, 3f), C McFaul, E Duffy; T O'Brien, R Bell (0-2f), A O'Neill (0-2, 1f). Subs: A Hargan for D Brown, N McNicholl (0-1) for N Rocks, E Bradley (0-1f) for C Carville, R Moore for E Duffy, P McGroogan for A O'Neill.
Referee - M McNally. Tweet
