Dominant Donegal had slightly too much power and panache for a much lighter and outgunned Armagh side in this U20 Ulster Championship Quarter Final on an icy night in Ballybofey.
Gary Duffy’s side bossed all departments in a most one-sided opening half, and had a firm after an early goal in the 8th minute which came from route one football to towering full-forward Bobby McGettigan who field and fed Luke McGlynn.
Donegal 1-13 V Armagh 0-9
And last year’s county minor cooly picked his spot to set the home side on the road to a predictable victory.
But gritty Armagh staged a fine comeback in the third quarter where they hit 0-6 to make more of a contest with their kicked passes causing the Donegal defence some problems
Donegal’s lively centre forward Johnny McGroddy was a constant thorn in the Armagh defence and he hit a glorious point after sending three Armagh defenders the wrong.
The young Orchard boys were restricted to sporadic breakaway raids as Donegal took the game to their opponents.
Wing-back Kealan Dunleavy increased Donegal’s lead with McGroddy’s accuracy pushing the home side to 1-5 to 0-0 lead by the 22nd minute.
It took beleaguered Armagh a full 26 minutes to open their account as centre forward Ronan Fitzpatrick converted a free after full forward Darragh McMullen was fouled.
But there was no stopping Donegal as powerful midfielder Eoin Dowling sped almost the length of the field to hammer over a fine point.
Armagh tried a number of kicked passes inside but were repeatedly stymied by a well- organized Tir Conaill defence.
McGroddy added another point for the winners to put Donegal into a 1-7 to 0-1 half-time lead.
Armagh came out of the blocks much sharper on the resumption and hit three points in four minutes from the boot of Fitzpatrick and their first point from play from Caolan Finnegan.
They also gained a foothold in midfield forcing Donegal to bring back Bobby McGettigan form full-forward.
Armagh were coming more into the game and had further points from Darragh McMullen to leave Donegal leading by 1-9 to 0-7
And further points from Eric Carr and Richard O’Rourke sealed victory..
Scorers: Donegal J McGroddy (0-74f), L McGlynn (1-2) K Dunleavy (0-1), E Carr (0-1) E Dowling (0-1), R O’Rourke (0-1)
Armagh: R Fitzpatrick (0-4f), S Magill (0-145), C Finnegan (0-1), D McMullen (0-1) A McParland (0-1).L McKever (0-1)
Donegal: Daithi Roberts; Kieran Tobin, Sean Doherty, Ryan McShane; Caolan McColgan, Jack Gallagher, Kealan Dunleavy; Eoin Dowling, Donal McBride; Paul O’Hare, Johnny McGroddy, Eric Carr; Bobby McGettigan, Carlos O’Reilly, Luke McGlynn.Subs; Richard O’Rourke for Jack Gallagher (37), Kieran Moore for Carlos O’Reilly (41), Oisin Caulfield for Kealan Dunleay (52), F Coyle for Bobby McGettigan (60)
Armagh: Shea Magill; Peter McGrane, Gareth Murphy, Oisin McKeown; Oisin Crawford, Brendan O’Hare, Redmond French; Thomas Óg Duffy, Dara O’Callaghan; Sean Conlon, Ronan Fitzpatrick; Dan McCarthy; Sean Rocks, Darragh McMullen, Caolan Finnegan. Subs; Antoin McParland (0-1) for Dara O’Callaghan (h-time), Cathal Agnew for Oisin O’Hare
Referee A Marron (Monaghan)
