Gaelic Games

Dublin make it a four-in-a-row of Leinster U21 titles

Sky Blues prove too strong for Offaly in Portloaise

Dublin’s Tom Fox celebrates scoring a goal in the EirGrid Leinster U21 Football Championship Final against Offaly at O’Moore Park in Portloaise. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho

Paul Keane at O'Moore Park
Wed Mar 29 2017 - 21:36

Dublin 2-14 Offaly 0-8

Tom Fox and Stephen Smith hit the crucial goals at O'Moore Park as Dublin secured their fourth consecutive EirGrid Leinster Under-21 football title, a new record.

Fox finished with 1-2 in Portlaoise while Smith’s late, late goal glossed the scoreline as the Sky Blues secured a 14th provincial win.

Man of the match Aaron Byrne fired four points from play too, the same tally as boy wonder Con O'Callaghan.

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Dublin’s reward is an April 15th All-Ireland semi-final clash with the Ulster winners. Both Ulster semi-finals were postponed on Wednesday night due to ground conditions.

Dublin’s Andrew Foley and Cian Murphy go for the high ball with James Lalor and Jordan Hayes of Offaly. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho

Boss Dessie Farrell will demand an improvement from Dublin because they played in patches in what has been the theme of their campaign despite a series of comfortable wins.

They were still red-hot favourites to progress after victories over Westmeath and Longford and it was no surprise that Dublin forged clear with a 0-6 to 0-2 lead by the end of the opening quarter.

The scores simply came easier to Dublin who linked up well and consistently found Byrne, their two-goal hero against Westmeath.

He hit three early points in a row and there were scores from Fox, Glenn O’Reilly and Chris Sallier.

Offaly took over for the 10 minutes approaching half-time and enjoyed the lion’s share of possession.

Shane Tierney was Offaly's principal attacker and kicked his third point from play to leave them 0-7 to 0-4 down.

They were tentative in attack generally, though, and were left to rue eight first-half wides in all.

Dublin took full advantage by finishing the half with back to back to points from Eoin Murchan and O'Callaghan.

That left Dublin with a double scores 0-10 to 0-5 lead that they ruthlessly built upon with 1-2 after the restart.

O’Callaghan played Fox in for the 34th minute goal and Dublin led 1-12 to 0-5 before Offaly finally broke their own scoring deadlock.

Dublin took their foot off the gas for a period and went 16 minutes without a point before O’Callaghan booted two.

Offaly, chasing a first title since 1995, fought back with three points in a row at one stage but needed a goal that never arrived.

Smith added Dublin’s second goal in injury-time when he finished off a neat passing move with a low left footed finish from close range.

DUBLIN: E Comerford; D Monaghan, S McMahon, D Byrne; E Murchan (0-1), C O'Shea, C Murphy; A Foley, B Howard; T Fox (1-2), D O'Brien, A Byrne (0-4, one 45); C Sallier (0-1), C O'Callaghan (0-4, two frees), G O'Reilly (0-2).

Subs: S Smith (1-0) for Sallier (41 mins), Seán Bugler for O'Brien (42 mins), D Gavin for Fox (48 mins), A Elliott for O'Reilly (51 mins), A McGowan for Monaghan (57 mins).

OFFALY: B Rohan; C Horan, D Dempsey, C Doyle; A Mahon, PJ Daly, J Egan; J Lalor, J Hayes (0-3, two frees); C Farrell, R McNamee, J Walsh; R McEvoy (0-1), P Dunican, S Tierney (0-4, one free).

Subs: K Higgins for Mahon (41 mins), J Clancy for Dunican (49 mins), C Stewart for Egan (62 mins).

Referee: D Hickey (Carlow).

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