Down blow Monaghan away in windy Newry to reach Ulster Under-20 final

Down 1-17 Monaghan 1-09

A stunning first half from Down saw Conor Laverty's side reach the Eirgrid Ulster Under-20 final at Monaghan’s expense at a blustery Páirc Esler.

Laverty’s fingerprints were all over his young side as they were rampant in an opening 45 minutes of exquisite movement, possession and unrelenting point taking.

The final quarter of an hour will give Laverty and his final opponents Derry food for thought in a fortnight’s time.

Monaghan’s Stephen Mooney finally squirmed home a consolation goal but the creation of so many goalmouth frights had Down really worried. Paul Curran’s side struck the woodwork at least four times in desperation, along with numerous other heart-in-the-mouth scrambles. Despite the uncomfortable finale, Down had taken off influential midfielder Odhran Murdock and top scorer Oisín Savage with a quarter of an hour to go and still ran out eight-point winners.

Savage was exceptional on a wet night. When the game was in the balance, the Loughinisland man’s audacity swung the game in the home side’s favour. He stunned all in attendance with a rasping half-volley to the net in the 20th minute. That goal knocked back Monaghan’s confidence and Savage finished with 1-05 in the opening half alone. The visitors had the wind in the first half and at half-time they trailed 1-10 to 0-05.

Mooney scored four placed balls and Dylan Byrne scored Monaghan’s only point from play with the wind at their backs.

That stat did not bode well for the second half and Down put the game to bed rapidly upon the resumption with four points in a row. Full forward Jason Morgan whipped over two from play to extend Down’s lead to an even more punishing margin of 12 points. In the midst of the replacements, Connor Eccles and