fonaCAB Ulster Minor Club Football Championship final: Dungiven 2-7 Four Masters 1-8
IT’S never really about the size of the dog, is it?
When Four Masters lined up alongside Dungiven yesterday, the Donegal champions enjoyed sizeable physical advantages all over the pitch.
In John Bell and Jake Graham, Four Masters had two monsters at midfield.
Dungiven’s homework led them to make a brave call in defence. Conor Meehan had caught the eye against Donaghmore, scoring 1-6, but Emmett McKeever and Darrell O’Kane decided that Seanán Carr was the most glaring threat at centre-forward.
Jack Dunne, outstanding all year, blotted out his man. Behind him, Donnach Colgan gave away maybe four, five inches in height to Meehan. The young corner-back was completely unfazed. He wrestled and he scrapped and he blocked and he tackled.
Kian O’Connor, whose father Joe and uncle Declan won here in 1990, did the same when he was drafted into the other man-marking role inside after half-time.
Joe Dillon has the height and athleticism, a cutout of the frame of his father Francis, a member of their 1997 squad. He was up against the outstanding Kevin Muldoon, a Derry City starlet. Their battle was outrageously good.
Muldoon would win a duel, then Dillon would strip him of the next two balls, and then Muldoon would conjure a score from nowhere. That’s the way it went all day.
“Those were the match-ups we wanted,” said McKeever.
“Donnach might be giving away a few inches but watching them, we knew they didn’t play in that much high ball and we knew Donnach could go man-to-man with anybody, he’s a sticky corner-back and very good at what he does.
“Joe was another match-up, that fella Muldoon is a sharp lad, a real classy player but Joe has the pace over those first three or four steps to stay with a boy like that, I thought he had an excellent game, he was outstanding.”
That’s how the game was. Full of tension and mistakes, punctuated by the moments of quality that Dungiven just provided more of. They couldn’t have timed their two goals better, for they were badly in need of both when they arrived, but overall they were the better side.
32 years after his uncle Barry captained the last Dungiven team to win here, in front of elder brother and Derry City star Jamie, it was Dara McGonigle who earned the man-of-the-match award.
His pace was his side’s most persistent threat. He was the player who most lit up the Shaws Road, which was electrified by a crackling atmosphere befitting of the occasion.
Eoin Higgins, who won player of the tournament, kicked two superb scores up the hill in the first half, both of them arcing beautifully off his left foot from right in front of the crowd he turned to salute.
His battle with Callum McCrea was of the same heavyweight division as Dillon v Muldoon. Higgins won the first half, McCrea won the second but when it was coming down to it, there was Dungiven’s centre-forward throwing himself full length, face first into McCrea’s boot to block a shot as the game headed into the final quarter.
It was really just typical U17 football. Two superbly coached teams who went out on the big day with a template that they tried to stick to, but got caught up in the chaos and the hype of it all.
By manager Damien Dunnion’s own admission, Four Masters were fortunate to be a point up at half-time. They were 0-3 to 0-0 down when they got the well-timed major of the first half. Conor Meehan’s free dropped short and there was no square ball called as the ball fell to Seanán Carr – one of two sons of former Allstar Shane – to rattle home.
Four Masters had very limited possession in the first 20 minutes but any time they had it, they looked like scoring a goal. Three times Dungiven goalkeeper Odhran McElhinney came to the rescue.
He’d come to the game with his uncle Eunan O’Kane’s old number 11 jersey in his kitbag. They hung it in the changing room before the game.
O’Kane was the star of the Dungiven team that won this tournament in 1990, scoring 2-11 across the three games against Burren, Clann na Gael and Aodh Ruadh. This was the past they had to live up to.
McElhinney lived up to it. Seanán Carr’s first ever was already being celebrated by the Four Masters dugout when the Dungiven ‘keeper reached out his fingertips and touched it on to the bar.
Then he stretched to intercept Daniel Quinn’s square pass aimed for the far post before getting a tiny, vital touch on Kevin Muldoon’s shot across goal midway through the half.
After that, the Donegal champions’ goal threat dissipated. Conor McCahill kicked two fine points. Their half-back line was excellent going forward but Dungiven kept getting at them the other way.
Four Masters led by 1-4 to 0-6 at half-time, having been second best. The game was more even in the second half. Dungiven only scored three times, but crucially two of them were those goals.
They were three down when Murphy's dropping shot was brilliantly read by Shea McLaughlin, who found a few yards of space and fired home off his left foot.
That was on 38 minutes but with scores at a real premium, Kevin Muldoon landed a brilliant one that pushed the Donegal Town men back in front in the closing stages.
But again they couldn’t live with McGonigle’s pace. With 90 seconds of normal time to play, he burned in down the left wing and coolly slotted for Padraig Haran, who cut on to his left and finished low to the net from eight yards.
Injury-time felt like an eternity for them, running to almost six minutes – extended from three by black cards for Leo McGowan (Four Masters) and Odhran Murphy (Dungiven) – but Haran’s goal would prove to be the last score.
Twenty-five years after they won the Ulster senior title, Dungiven are back among the big dogs.
MATCH STATS
Dungiven: O McElhinney; KB Mullan, D Colgan; K O’Connor; P Haran (1-0), J Dunne, J Dillon; P O’Kane, B Butcher; S McLaughlin (1-0), E Higgins (0-5, 0-3 frees), D McGonigle (0-1); C Gaile, O Murphy (0-1), D O’Neill
Subs: P O’Neill for D O’Neill (36)
Four Masters: D McGinty; T Colhoun, F O’Donnell, T McGovern; D Monaghan; L McGowan (0-1), C McCrea (0-1), C Sweeney; J Bell, J Graham; C McCahill (0-2), S Carr (1-0), K Muldoon (0-2); C Meehan (0-2 frees), D Quinn
Subs: T Carr for Quinn (45), O Doherty for McCahill (55), D McIntyre for Bell (62)
Referee: C McDonald (St Gall’s)
