Ulster Minor Football Championship Results

Group A

FERMANAGH 4-8 DOWN 1-10

DERRY 3-12 DONEGAL 0-6

Group B

TYRONE 8-17 ANTRIM 0-2

CAVAN 1-16 ARMAGH 1-7

A hat-trick of goals from Fermanagh's Barry Goodwin powered the Erne County to a seven-point win over Down in what was undoubtedly the most significant contest on a busy day in the Ulster minor football championship, as the 4-8 to 1-10 win for Niall McElroy's side confirms that they will take their place in the quarter-final lineup on May 13th, while Down are now eliminated on the back of four successive defeats in the group stages. 

While there is another round of games to be played in Group A next weekend, this match was essentially a straight knockout fixture and Down started well too, with three points from Barra McEvoy (two frees) and scores from Patrick Woods and Rian Magorrian helped to establish an 0-5 to 0-1 lead. 

A black card for Down's Corey Clerkin helped Fermanagh as they picked off the next three points, but that damage was undone from Down's perspective when Dara McAleenan found the net for the Mourne county in the 20th minute. 

A penalty from Barry Goodwin put Fermanagh back on the front foot however and the Irvinestown player quickly levelled the game with a point before finding the net a second time just before half-time. 

Tadhg O'Hanlon and Mattie McDermott exchanging points was the only scoring action until the 44th minute when Barry McEvoy made it 2-6 to 1-7 with a Down free, but three minutes later Michael Burns' emphatic finish put daylight between the sides. With their championship lives on the line, Down battled hard and got back to within a goal through a Charlie McGrath point with five minutes to play, but Goodwin's hat-trick goal in the last minute of normal time was enough to settle Fermanagh nerves and see them home. 

They may have missed out on provincial glory during the week at U-20 level, but Derry remain in pole position in the group and look like the front runners for the championship after they secured a comprehensive 3-12 to 0-6 win over Donegal at Ballybofey.

These two counties marked themselves out as very strong contenders in 2023 by reaching the Jim McGuigan Cup (Ulster Minor League) final and on that occasion in late March, a late goal gave Donegal a narrow 1-9 to 0-9 win at Glen GAA club. This afternoon's tie at MacCumhaill Park was a completely different story, as Derry started strongly and never looked back.

The writing was on the wall early on as Derry kicked the first three points, one of which was a goal chance that Oisín Doherty fired over, while Pádraig Mac Giolla Bhríde also had to produce a wonderful save to deny Cahir Speirs a goal after eight minutes. 

From here, Donegal settled with two Shane Callaghan points and appeared to have weathered the storm, but two goals in three minutes from Speirs and James Sargent, followed by a point from John Boyle, made it 2-6 to 0-3 at half-time. 

The home side emptied a lot of energy into the early stages of the second half and drew first blood through a Callaghan free, but they couldn't build on it, and wonderful points from Eamon Young and Speirs pushed the gap out to double figures. 

Johnny McGuckin fired in a third goal for the Oak Leaf County late on to further emphasise their dominance in this battle between two counties that came in on the back of two wins from two so far. 

In Group B, it was one-way traffic at Healy Park in Omagh as the first three scores of the game - and the only scores of the opening quarter - were goals from Mattie Howe, Darragh Donaghy and James Corry, and by half-time, Tyrone led by 3-5 to no score. Brian Gallagher got goal number four to start the second half and Tyrone continued in the same vein from there, racking up the scores en route to their third win of the championship, meaning they top the group.

In the other game, Cavan and Armagh met at the Athletic Grounds, and a nine-point win for Cavan means that they finish second in the group, while Armagh finish third and so are likely to have a tougher quarter-final tie, possibly against Donegal.

Not unlike the senior championship game between the counties last weekend, Cavan's shooting and indeed their shot selection was not what it should be, and they could have been much further ahead at half-time than they were, when the score was 0-7 to 1-3 to the boys in blue. 

Éanna Ward, Darragh Noonan, Ryan Nwaneri and Ben Tully kicked some wonderful points in that opening half-hour, but even though they owned the ball and dominated territory, Conall McGeough found the net for Armagh and three late points reduced the gap to the minimum. 

Armagh continued to battle manfully, even after losing midfielder Micheál Hughes to a second yellow card early in the second half, and some good long range dead balls from Martin McKinley kept them in the game. However Noonan, Joshua Shehu and Dylan Edwards all kicked good points in between the runs of wides for Cavan, and they had plenty of margin for error by the time substitute Odhran Madden got their goal in the final quarter.