Saffrons easily secure crown

ANTRIM breezed to their 10th Ulster Minor Hurling Championship title in a row against a disappointing Derry side at Casement Park yesterday.

The Saffrons looked sharper all over and their three most lively forwards bagged the first three scores in Stephen McAfee, Conor Johnston and Daniel McCloskey.

Derry got off the mark when Shane Farren converted a free but two more points from play for McAfee and another from the pacy McCloskey had the home side 0-6 to 0-1 ahead.

In Derry’s best spell of the game, Farren fired over a second free, with Gerald Bradley getting Derry’s first from play to cut the gap to three.

Bradley again found his range on 28 minutes to close the gap and a superb long-range effort from captain Michael Varnock cancelled out McCloskey’s fifth of the half. Shane Farren kept Derry in touch in first-half injury time as Antrim took a 0-10 to 0-6 lead into the break.

Playing with the breeze in the second half, Antrim were favourites to retain their title and when Sean McAfee fired home the game’s first goal on 36 minutes, the Saffrons were on their way. McKernan then bagged their second after being set up by McCloskey.

The Oak Leafers looked resigned to defeat and offered little resistance to the Saffron tide, finally notching their first score of the half on 43 minutes through Tiernan McCloskey.

The goals continued to come for Antrim with McCloskey and Conor Johnston both netting by the 52nd minute. Bradley netted a consolation for Derry, but Antrim saw out a comfortable victory and progress to the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Scorers for Antrim: Conor Johnston, D McCloskey (4fs) 1-5 each, Stephen McAfee 0-3, Sean McAfee, D McKernan 1-1 each, J McGreevy, C Jennings 0-1 each.

Scorers for Derry: G Bradley 1-2, S Farren 0-3 (2fs), T McCloskey 0-2 (1f, 1 65), M Warnock 0-1.

ANTRIM: P Nugent; F Donnelly, N McFadden, L Pedan; S Rooney, M McVeigh, Ciaran Johnston; M Dudley, Stephen McAfee; J McGreevy, Conor Johnston, D McCloskey; Sean McAfee, N McKenna, D McKernan.

Subs: C Jennings for M Dudley, M Bradley for N McKenna, E Haggerty for M McVeigh, A McKinley for L Peden.

DERRY: C O’Kane; M Warnock (0-1), D Mullan, J O’Loughlin; E Crossan, B Óg McGilligan, R Farren; G Bradley, C McGurk; L Murphy, K McIntye, N Farren; S Farren, T McCloskey, C Doherty

Subs: P McGrath for K McIntyre, B Rodgers for N Farren, E Cassidy for T McCloskey, M Taggart for L Murphy

Referee: J Devlin (Tyrone).