There were mixed fortunes this afternoon for the Donegal Minor and U16 teams.
Barry Ward’s minors were much too strong for Monaghan while the U16s lost by four points to Derry in the Buncrana Cup.
In Fr Tierney Park, Ballyshannon, the county minors finished off their Group A matches in the Ulster Championship with an impressive victory over Monaghan to top the group and clinch a semi-final spot. The win meant that they finished level on points with Tyrone, but pipped them for top spot on the head to head rule. After an even enough opening quarter, Barry Ward’s team stepped up a gear to race to a six points lead as half-time approached. However, they then ended the half with two goals in quick succession from Eoghan Gallagher and Donnchadh O Baoighill to lead by 2-08 to 0-03 and in control at the break.
The second-half was more keenly contested but Donegal were comfortably able to hold the visitors at arms length and win by ten points, 2-12 to 0-08 to clinch that semi-final spot with the added bonus of home advantage.
Buncrana Cup
Donegal 2-06
Derry 0-16
Meanwhile, in the Buncrana Cup Under 16 competition at MacCumhaill Park, Derry dominated the first-half and led by 0-12 to 0-01 as Donegal struggled to get any sort of a foothold on the game.
However, a good start to the second-half saw them score 2-03, both goals coming from Danny McCready. This got them right back in the game and left them just two points behind, 0-12 to 2-04.
Derry, however, steadied the ship with three points in a row to lead by five. But a couple of McCready frees reduced that to three again to set up an exciting finish.
However, Derry had the final say with a late point to win by four, 0-16 to 2-06. It was a fine second-half fight back by Donegal but they had left themselves too much to do with that first-half deficit of eleven points.
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