EirGrid All-Ireland U-20 football semi-final

DUBLIN 1-14 TYRONE 1-12

By Paul Keane at Kingspan Breffni

Resurgent Dublin saved their best for late on at Kingspan Breffni with a storming finish to overtake Tyrone and secure their place in the EirGrid All-Ireland U-20 football final.

The back to back Leinster champions and 2019 All-Ireland runners-up trailed by two points at the second water break and looked in real trouble.

They'd been two behind Ulster champions Tyrone at half-time and had traded points virtually score for score for the first 20 minutes of the second-half.

But when the need was greatest the Dubs dug deepest and outscored Tyrone by 0-5 to 0-1 late on to guarantee their place in next Saturday's final alongside Kerry or Galway who meet in the second semi-final this afternoon.

Ciaran Archer, the reigning U-20 Player of the Year, took his tally to 1-23 for the season with 0-6 while Brian O'Leary, another player who featured for Dublin last year, scored 1-1.

Mark Lavin's three points were significant too while Lorcan O'Dell and Lee Gannon sniped important scores late on as Dublin turned the screw.

Tyrone went with a dozen of the team that lined out in last March's Ulster final defeat of Donegal and impressed initially, moving four points ahead at one stage in the first-half.

Conal Devlin, Simon Garrity and Rory Donnelly were their three additions while Dublin had five alterations from their Leinster final lineup.

O'Leary was hamstrung earlier this year while Sean Lowry and Mark O'Leary were also injured but all three started here.

Provincial final subs Conor Tyrrell and Adam Fearon also started for Dublin though it was Lowry who made the immediate impact, opening the scoring for Dublin and tying the game up at 0-1 apiece.

Powerful full-forward Luke Swan, a talented dual player, played in O'Leary with a clever forward hand pass in the 12th minute and the Na Fianna attacker slipped a low finish to the net.

That left the Dubs 1-2 to 0-2 ahead though Tyrone took over from there and registered 1-4 without reply between the 16th and 24th minutes.

Darragh Canavan kicked points off both feet in this period and Tiarnan Quinn scored the Tyrone goal in the 19th minute to put them 1-4 to 1-3 ahead at that stage.

Garrity set up the opportunity with a clever left footed pass to Donnelly whose shot was blocked by the Dublin 'keeper but Quinn followed up and struck the loose ball to the net.

Ethan Jordan's 24th minute point opened up a four-point lead for Tyrone but back to back Archer points just before the interval were significant for Dublin, leaving them just 1-7 to 1-5 down.

That margin was cut to the minimum just seconds after the restart when Archer swooped for his third, this time from a free won by O'Leary.

Both sides traded three points in the third quarter as a pattern of Tyrone scoring and Dublin replying in kind at the other end of the field developed.

Dublin points from O'Leary and Archer twice reduced the gap to just one and the back to back Leinster champions finally drew level in the 54th minute at 1-12 apiece through Lorcan O'Dell.

Dublin had clear momentum now and the wind advantage too and surged ahead with cracking points from distance from Archer and wing-back Lee Gannon which ultimately secured their two-point win.

Dublin scorers: Ciaran Archer 0-6 (0-3f), Brian O'Leary 1-1, Mark Lavin 0-3, Lorcan O'Dell 0-2, Sean Lowry 0-1, Lee Gannon 0-1.

Tyrone scorers: Tiarnan Quinn 1-3 (0-2f), Ethan Jordan 0-5 (0-3f, 0-1 45), Darragh Canavan 0-3 (0-1m), Simon Garrity 0-1.

DUBLIN: Josh O'Neill; Conor Tyrrell, Adam Rafter, Josh Bannon; Mark O'Leary, Adam Waddick, Lee Gannon; Adam Fearon, Sean Foran; Mark Lavin, Lorcan O'Dell, Sean Lowry; Ciaran Archer, Luke Swan, Brian O'Leary. Subs: Evan Caulfield for Fearon 10-14 blood, Rory Dwyer for Foran h/t, Kieran McKeon for Fearon 42, Padraig Purcell for Lowry 62.

TYRONE: Lorcan Quinn; Conal Devlin, Cormac Munroe, Cormac Quinn; Antoin Fox, Michael Gallagher, James McCann; Kevin Barker, Rory Donnelly; Tom Donaghy, Tiarnan Quinn, Ethan Jordan; Darragh Canavan, Simon Garrity, Matthew Murnaghan. Subs: Ryan Jones for Donaghy 28, Mark Hayes for Garrity 43, Joe Oguz for Barker 48, Liam Gray for Donnelly 58.

Referee: Barry Judge (Sligo).