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Dublin win Under 21 All Ireland

November 8, 2018

O’Brien leads his U21 men to promise land

06 May 2012 | hill16.ie

DUBLIN 2-12 ROSCOMMON 0-11

The Dubs finished like a freight train to capture the Cadbury All-Ireland U21FC final at O’Connor Park, Tullamore on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday’s victory was the Dubs third Clarke Cup success as Jim Gavin became the first Dublin manager to lead the county to two All-Ireland glories – having managed the team in 2010.

Dublin led 1-5 to 0-6 at the interval thanks in chief to the clinical accuracy of Paul Hudsdon. Indeed it was the Thomas Davis sniper whose goal in first half added time that proved to be the only goal of the first half after he skilfully jab-lifted the ball before rifling to the roof of the Roscommon net.

The goal arrived in the 32nd minute when John Kelly’s delivery was broken down by Ciaran Kilkenny and Hudson showed terrific guile to find the net.

The Dubs could really have held a stronger advantage failed to convert possession into scores and were guilty not combining to telling effect up front as the Rossies maximised on territory and possession for the first 30 minutes.

Roscommon threw caution to the wind on the restart and were rewarded with four points without reply as the lively Donie Smith (two), Cian Connolly and Colin Compton were all on target.

But when his side need his most Emmet O Conghaile regained a foothold for the Dubs at centrefield while the introduction of Paddy O’Higgins, like nearly all the substitutions with Gerry Seaver kicking one superb point, helped to turn the balance of power the way of Gavin’s men in a frenetic second half while at the back the likes of team captain, Kevin O’Brien, and Sean George kepth their opponents at bay with some heroic defending.

Now on the front foot Dublin began to open up Roscommon with some direct running from the likes of Gary Sweeney and sub Harry Dawson and over the concluding ten minutes Dublin hit 1-6 without reply as they turned on the turboes to finally shake off a very committed Roscommon side.

Ciaran Kilkenny put in an excellent last ten minutes while centre-back, John Kelly’s, points really summed up the ‘never say die’ attitude of the Dublin team as they stretched themselves to the limit to capture victory.

Deep in injury time, Paul Mannion, raised Dublin’s second green flag after being denied at the original attempt to add All-Ireland glory to their provincial success.

SCORERS – Dublin: P Hudson 1-4, C Kilkenny 0-4 (0-1f), P Mannion 1-0, P Ryan, J Kelly, G Seaver, H Dawson 0-1 each. Roscommon: D Smith 0-4 (0-2f), C Compton 0-3 (0-1f), D Keane, C Connolly 0-2 each.
DUBLIN – JB Carthy; S George, K O’Brien, M Concar; L Fletcher, J Kelly, J McCaffrey; E O Conghaile, C Reddin; G Sweeney, D Byrne, M Schutte; P Hudson, P Ryan, C Kilkenny. Subs: P Maguire for Schutte (ht), G Seaver for Byrne (34), H Dawson for Ryan (41), P O’Higgins for Reddin (42), P Mannion for Hudson (58).
ROSCOMMON – T Lowe; C Cafferkey, C Duignan, D Murray; C Daly, P Brogan, R Stack; C Shine, N Daly; S Oates, N Kilroy, D Keane; C Connolly, C Compton, D Smith. Subs: J McManus for Keane (48), F Cregg for Stack (54), C Murtagh for Connolly (58), F Kelly for Kilroy (59).
REF: P O’Sullivan (Kerry).
ATT: 10,000 (approx).