Minor footballers determined to bounce back

Dublin minor footballers have picked themselves up and dusted themselves off since their Leinster MFC final defeat and are ready to go again in this Saturday's Electric Ireland All-Ireland MFC quarter-final against Mayo in Glennon Bros Pearse Park, Longford (3.0).

The game is the first game in a triple-header being followed by the All-Ireland U20FC semi-final between Dublin and Galway (5.0) and then the All-Ireland MFC quarter-final between Galway and Kildare (7.0).

The Dubs and Kildare played out a pulsating provincial MFC decider with Lilywhites coming through stronger in extra-time to win 2-21 to 1-19.

The bad news did not end there for the boys in blue as both full-back Ben Millist and centre-back/midfielder Senan Forker suffering injuries from which they have still to return to full fitness.

"The lads have been in very good form at training since the Kildare match and that’s understandable as lads that age can dust off defeats like that quite easily," said Dublin manager Jim Lehane.

"They are in good humour and really looking forward to the match on Saturday and they know they just have to take the positives out of that game and, naturally, it’s far easier to learn things in defeat than in victory.

"Kildare were more physical than us on that day and not necessarily in terms of their size but more in the determination and desire that they had to win possession – that is certainly something that we would look at ahead of Saturday’s match.

"Mayo are a talented team and they will be high on confidence after winning the Connacht title.

"It’s a big challenge for us but I don’t think that there is much to separate the eight remaining teams in the championship.

"We just cannot wait to get out there and test ourselves against a strong Mayo team and hopefully we’ll produce enough on the day to win," concluded Jim.

Prior to the Leinster MFC final Dublin had enjoyed victories over Meath (4-10 to 2-10, Parnell Park), Wexford (3-12 to 1-10, Bellefield, Enniscorthy), and Offaly (2-13 to 0-13, O'Connor Park, Tullamore) to top Group 2 in the Leinster MFC to advance to the quarter-final.

They then overcame Wicklow (0-20 to 1-9, Joule Park, Aughrim) in their Leinster quarter-final before defeating Westmeath (0-18 to 1-11, Cusack Park, Mullingar) in their semi-final.

In the Connacht championship all five counties played off in a round-robin group at the end of which Galway, with three wins from four games (lost to Roscommon), finished on top and progressed to their provincial final.

Mayo, Sligo and Roscommon all finished on four league points after winning two and losing two of their games so it went down to scoring difference with Mayo (+27) and Sligo (+16) advancing to a semi-final ahead of Roscommon (+1).

After losing to both Sligo (0-12 to 0-16) and Galway (0-11 to 2-12) in the round-robin section Mayo overturned both in the knockout stages.

Mayo, who are managed by Tomás Morley who played senior football with St Jude's during his time as a teacher in Dublin, defeated Sligo in their Connacht semi-final (5-7 to 1-10) and then Galway (1-18 to 1-17) in their provincial decider.

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2019 DUBLIN MINOR FOOTBALLERS: Scoring Chart

Dublin minor footballers have scored 10-92 and conceded 7-74 in their six games to date (wins against Meath, Wexford, Offaly, Wicklow, Westmeath and loss to Kildare). Fourteen players have contributed so far to their scoring tally.

Fionn Murray 3-33 (0-23f, 0-4 '45')

Robbie Bolger 3-8

Ryan O'Dwyer 1-10 (0-5f, 0-1 pen)

Luke Swan 2-6

Alex Rogers 0-10

Seán Kinsella 1-4]

Ross Keogh 0-6

Luke Curran 0-5

David O'Dowd 0-2

Dara Fagan 0-2

Callum Monaghan 0-2

Luke Murphy-Guinane 0-2

Conor Archer 0-1

Senan Forker 0-1