February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Meath 0-8
Take Derry. They hadn’t had to stretch their legs since early July when they edged past Tyrone in the Ulster final. Since then they’d swatted Tipperary aside in the All-Ireland quarterfinal and destroyed Longford in the semifinal. They were scoring points for fun, goals for frolics. How would they approach a final in that case? Surely they couldn’t expect to dominate again? Surely not against Meath?
Well, that’s what they did. They came to Croke Park Sunday with a strut and a swagger and they slapped Meath about like bullies in a playground, winning the All-Ireland minor football title. They outscored them by 7points and still managed 15 wides. Meath managed just 10 shots at goal.
Derry should have had this sown up long before the end. But they had silly, terrible wides in the first half that let Meath stay in touch. Ciaran Mullan was probably the worst offender, hitting three wides in a row. Such was their incompetence that it took until 15 minutes from the end for them to shake Meath off.
Derry: R. Convery 1-0, C. O’Cane 0-3, J. Bateson 0-3 (1 free), C. Moran 0-2, B. McGoldrick 0-2, C. Mullan 0-2.
Meath: B. Farrell 0-7 (5 frees), D. Murthagh 0-1).