Gaelic Games

All-Ireland minor championship: Derry beat Dublin as Kerry, Mayo and Armagh ease through

Derry’s 0-18 to 2-10 win over Dublin in Breffni Park was the only close encounter of the four quarter-finals

Derry's Padraig Hargan tackles Dublin's Senan Bolger in the All-Ireland minor quarter-finals. Photograph: Leah Scoles/Inpho

Sat Jun 8 2024 - 21:41

Derry’s 0-18 to 2-10 win over Dublin at Breffni Park was the only one of four All-Ireland minor football quarter-finals that turned out to be closely fought on Saturday afternoon, as Kerry, Mayo and Armagh all eased their way into the last four of the competition alongside the Oak Leaf County.

Turlough McHugh, Eamonn Young, James Sargent and Dylan Rocks accounted for 15 of Derry’s 18 points between them, with the northerners registering all bar one of their scores from open play.

Sargent, Rocks and Young struck the first three points of the game but Senan Bolger’s goal cancelled that out, and the contest was still very tense at half-time, with Derry ahead by 0-8 to 1-4.

Donach Magee hit 1-1 in the second half (1-3 overall) to nudge Dublin a point in front going into the final quarter, but Derry struck four of the last five points to prevail.

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Leinster champions Longford took on Armagh in the other leg of the double header in Cavan and they were competitive with the Orchard County early on, cancelling out Armagh’s early points with a goal and a point from Luke Donnelly.

Armagh replied with 1-4 in succession, their goal coming from Shea Loughran, and after leading by five at half-time, they dominated the second half hour to secure a 1-16 to 1-3 victory.

In Ennis, Oisín Dean scored 2-3 and his Crossmolina club colleague Kobe McDonald registered 1-6 in Mayo’s dominant 3-15 to 0-6 win over Cork.

Mayo suffocated the Cork kickout and looked incredibly sharp up front as they built on Dean’s early goal, moving 11 clear at half-time through McDonald’s penalty.

Wing back Mark Sheeran scored a point off each foot to catch the eye in an equally one-sided second half.

Munster will be represented by a strong Kerry team in the last four after the Kingdom’s dominant first half display set them on the road to a comprehensive 3-18 to 2-3 win over Roscommon, also at Cusack Park.

Roscommon opened the scoring through a Dean Casey free and then didn’t add another point for the remainder of the first half.

Wing backs Seán Ó Cuinn and Gavin O’Keeffe shot three first half points, Killian Dennehy was impressive at midfield and up front the Tralee CBS pair of Gearóid White and Ronan Carroll had outstanding performances.

Joey McCarthy’s goal made it 1-11 to 0-1 at half-time, and Kerry running the bench didn’t even help as Ryan O’Driscoll came on to fire 2-1, while Keelan Kelly and Eoin Collins got consolation goals for the Rossies.

Kerry will take on Derry for a place in the final, while Armagh will meet Mayo next time out.

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