McElholm leads from the front as Tyrone claim Ulster minor title

Tyrone 4-8 Derry 0-16

Goals at crucial stages of a thrilling Ulster MFC final saw Tyrone retain their title at Clones.

Skipper Eoin McElholm led the way with two goals, firing in his first after 14 minute to send Tyrone into a 1-2 to 0-2 lead, after Derry pair Odhran Murphy and Ciaran Chambers had seen scores cancelled out by McElholm and Ronan Molloy.

Molloy fired in an opportunist second goal, reacting sharply to a Conan Devlin shot coming off the crossbar to open up a five point lead.

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Eoin Higgins narrowed the gap from a couple of frees, but at the break, Tyrone led by 2-3 to 0-5.

Higgins was on the mark again in the Derry fightback with a string of conversions as they hit five of the first six points of the second half, with Murphy and Odhran Crozier also on target.

Tyrone responded with two Michael McElhatton scores, and Caolan Donnelly grabbed their third goal to open up a four point gap.

But back came Derry again for Cahir Spiers to narrow the gap to a point, before McElholm hit the net again to seal it in stoppage time and send last year’s beaten All-Ireland finalists through to a quarter-final with the Munster runners-up. Derry also go through to face the Munster champions.

TYRONE: C McAneney; J Clarke, B Hughes, Conor Devlin; B McMenamin, C Daly, N Farry; Conan Devlin, C O’Neill; S Hughes (0-1, f), E McElholm (2-1), C Donnelly (1-0); N Grimes (0-2, 1f), R Molloy (1-1), M McElhatton (0-2).

Subs: C McGarvey for McAneney (5), R McCullagh (0-1) for Hughes (49), N McCarney for Molloy (52), S Fay for Conan Devlin (59), C Donnelly for McElhatton (62), L Hughes for Conor Devlin (62)

DERRY: B O’Connor; F McEldowney, E Scullion, D McDermott; J Murray, O Crozier (0-1, ‘45), S Birt (0-1); D McPeake, R Forbes; J McGuckian (0-1), C Higgins, C Spiers (0-2); E Higgins (0-7, 7f), C Chambers (0-2, 1f), O Murphy (0-2).

Subs: D McGurk for Murphy (57), A Donnelly for Birt (59)

Referee: P Clarke (Cavan).