U21 footballers crowned All-Ireland champions

DUBLIN 2-13 GALWAY 2-7

Dublin are EirGrid All-Ireland U21 football champions for 2017 following their superb victory over Galway in Saturday's decider at O'Connor Park, Tullamore.

As the curtain comes down on the U21 football grade, going to U20 next season, both counties served up an excellent final clash with concluded in high drama with co-captains Cillian O'Shea and Con O'Callaghan lifting the Clarke Cup.

Dublin led by eight points with ten minutes remaining but had to weather a Galway storm before pushing on to victory with an Aaron Byrne goal, in final minute of added time Con O'Callaghan elected to take a point from the penalty spot after an edge of the seat finish.

Raiding Galway wing-back Cillian McDaid hit one stunning late goal for the Tribesmen before, with four points between the sides, Ruairi Greene's goal effort hit the inside of Evan Comerford's post before being cleared to safety.

But overall the Dubs were the better side and once again their work-rate, the quality of their tackling and outstanding collective team effort saw them to victory.

Also several individual heroes emerged with first half sub Darren Gavin, son of former Galway senior All-Ireland winner (1998) Fergal, enjoying a superb afternoon at midfield.

Beside him the dynamic Brian Howard gave another stellar display all over the park.

Dublin won the key man-to-man match-ups with Eoin Murchan in particular curbing the influence of Galway centre-forward Michael Daly who had been so influential for the Tribemen to date in the competition.

The Dublin defence again proved to be very hard to breach, with Galway only putting them on the back foot when they threw caution to the wind in the final ten minutes as Dublin began to tire.

It was Dublin's scoring blitz at the start of the second half that was crucial.

Having led by a point at the half-time interval, 0-5 to, Dessie Farrell's men scored a golden 1-3 without reply to put themselves in a winning position.

Con O'Callaghan got the goal after great interplay by the Dublin attack involving Tom Fox and Aaron Byrne and it was Dublin's ability to create and take point chances in this period that paved the way for victory.

The young Dubs also showed a good long-range scoring prowess with Brian Howard and the hard-working Dan O'Brien splitting the posts from out the park while Glenn O'Reilly tallied three very valuable points from play.

They also responded very well to Galway's late surge with Aaron Byrne's goal eventually sealing the deal in the dramatic finish following brilliant work by the influential Colm Basquel.

Afterwards Dublin manager Dessie Farrell said: “A good start was always going to be important. And then the match-ups; minimising, as best we could, their main men.

“Restricting their space and time on the ball and that sort of thing. I think we did a reasonably good job of that.

“I believe they deserved this. And I’m delighted they came away with it at the end.”

SCORERS – Dublin: C O’Callaghan 1-3 (0-2f, 0-1 pen), A Byrne 1-0, G O’Reilly 0-3, C Basquel, D O’Brien 0-2 each, S Smith, D Gavin, B Howard 0-1 each. Galway: C McDaid 1-1, C Brennan 1-0, P Cooke (f), K Molloy, M Daly, P Mannion, E Finnerty, C Brady 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: E Comerford; D Byrne, S McMahon, D Monaghan; C O’Shea, E Murchan, C Murphy; A Foley, B Howard; D O’Brien, G O’Reilly, A Byrne; T Fox, C O’Callaghan, C Basquel. Subs: D Gavin for Foley (13, inj), D Spillane for Fox (39), C Sallier for O’Reilly (45), A McGowan for McMahon (60), P Small for Basquel (61), S Smith for Byrne (62).

GALWAY: R Ó Beoláin; L Kelly, S Ó Ceallaigh, R Greene; K Molloy, D McHugh, C McDaid; P Cooke, C D’Arcy; S Kelly, M Daly, P Mannion; R Finnerty, E Finnerty, D Conneely. Subs: C Brady for R Finnerty (ht), C Brennan for D’Arcy (37), M Boyle for Conneely, (39), E Lee for S Kelly (44), A Ó Laoi for Mannion (54), P Ó Curraoin for Molloy (60).

REF: C Brannigan (Down).