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O Donnell & O Dea help Dublin Minor Footballers Overcome Cavan - Fri, 1 Apr 2005

 O Donnell & O Dea help Dublin Overcome Cavan 

Dublin 0-16 Cavan 1-8

Tim O Donnell & Cillian O Dea helped Dublin Minors warm up for the Leinster Minor Football Championship with a well earned win over Cavan. Well done lads, keep up the good work. 

A strong last ten minutes saw Dublin's minor footballers run out winners in this challenge at St Clare's, DCU on Wednesday afternoon. Ray Galligan's converted penalty for Cavan brought the Breffni side on level terms - 1-8 to 0-11 - with five minutes of normal time plus five minutes of added time remaining.

However, Dublin finished by far the stronger to score the concluding five points of the game. The opening half was a well-balanced affair with Shane Byrne, after an unsteady opening ten minutes, and Adam Keaney doing well in the Dublin full-back line. Wing-forwards Cathal Morley and Martin Daly were doing a lot of hard foraging for the Dubs but the attack was not combining with enough menace to unlock the Cavan defence. By half-time the Dubs held a 0-4 to 0-3 lead.

Dublin's final point of the opening 30 minutes came from a well judged Russell Cleere free from the right wing after he was off target with two similar efforts earlier in the half. Cavan restarted with points from Shane Reilly and Galligan to take the lead. In the 39th minute Daly hit the Cavan crossbar with a fisted effort after Cleere's original `45' dropped just short and was batted out by the Cavan defence.

A minute later Cleere put the Dubs back on level terms before Dean Kelly hit the butt of the Cavan upright with a well struck low cross-goal drive. Points from Kelly, from wide on the right, and Cleere had Dublin two points to the good - 0-7 to 0-5. Dublin then introduced three subs Paddy O'Connor, Philip McMahon and Dermot Connolly - all of whom got on the scoresheet while Connolly in particular brought more direction and composure to the Dublin attacks.

On the field less than a minute Connolly put Dublin three clear following a good ball up the wing from midfielder Shane McCann. Morley stretched the gap to four following good defence from Kevin Nolan, now operating at corner-back, and approach play by McCann. However, Dublin's grip on the game loosened and by the 25th minute of the second half Cavan were level following two points from Dermot Monaghan and Galligan's penalty.

Morley fired Dublin in front with his second point of the half after Connolly found McCann, now at full-forward, with an accurate pass. O'Connor slotted a free from his hands and McCann made it 0-14 to 1-8 from a superb 55-metre pass from Cleere. Points from Kelly, again from the right wing, and Morley finished the job.

Scorers - Dublin: R Cleere 0-4 (0-1f), C Morley 0-3, D Kelly, D Connolly 0-2 each, J O'Regan, M Daly, P McMahon, P O'Connor (f), S McCann 0-1 each. Cavan: R Galligan 1-3 (1-0 pen, 0-2f), S Reilly 0-3, D Monaghan 0-2

Dublin - Eoin Summerville; Shane Byrne, Adam Keaney, Tim O'Donnell; Cillian Byrnes, Kevin Nolan, Jason Ellard; Barry Cullen, Shane McCann; Cathal Morley, Russell Cleere, Martin Daly; Dean Kelly, James O'Regan, Cillian O'Dea.

Subs: Paddy O'Connor for O'Dea, Dermot Connolly for O'Regan, Philip McMahon for Daly.

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