St Eunan's hold on to reach U21 hurling final at Burt's expense

St Eunan’s just edged this richly entertaining encounter at the Convoy Training Centre to reach the Under-21 hurling final.

St Eunan’s 1-13

Burt 1-10

St Eunan’s only had had 14 players and Burt agreed to play with that number.

Battling Burt were trailing by three points and laid siege to the Letterkenny goals, but Paddy Flood’s boys held on for a deserved victory.

And it was their senior players who made the real difference in this hard- fought affair.

Marksman Paul O’Donnell played a big part in this victory weighing in with a total of 0-9 from placed balls.

He was well supported by the impressive Cormac Finn on the 40 who is everything a real dual player should be.

The tiny but talented Thomas Crossan (nephew of ex Donegal GAA star Mark Crossan) and Russell and Gavin Forde also showed up well for the winners.

For Burt Liam McKinney, at various stages was a real giant while Jack Gallagher and Eanna McLaughlin also had their moments.

Burt looked to be slipping out of the championship by the 44th minute when they trailed by 1-12 to 0-8.

But up stepped McKinney to smash home a great goal from 20 metres and set up a frenetic finish.

Burt had the breeze, but it was the Letterkenny lads who struck for an opening and highly crucial goal.

Eunan’s full-forward Johnny Lambe found himself clean through the Burt defence and his half hit shot deceived Burt keeper Conor Harkin.

This was a massive score for Eunan’s playing into a strong breeze.

Paul O’Donnell increased that lead with a pointed free and it took Burt 13 minutes before Jack Gallagher opened their account from play.

O’Donnell responded for the winners.

But it was then that McKinney surged into action and hit three great points on the trot helped the Inishowen men to narrow the gap to 1-2 to 0-4 by the 20th minute.

O’Donnell and McKinney then swapped points, before the rampaging McKinney made it 1-3 to 0-6 coming up to the break.

And he added another point to put Burt ahead by 0-7 to 1-3 at the break.

Burt extended that lead with a well struck Eanna McLaughlin effort on the resumption.

Letterkenny were to dominate the next quarter. O’Donnell, Gavin Browne and the dashing Cormac Finn were all on target. Crossan and O’Donnell made it 1-10 to 0-8 and it looked for Burt by the 44th minute.

But cometh the hour and cometh McKinney again as he crashed the sliotar to the net from a 20- metre free after Eanna McLaughlin was fouled.

Suddenly there was just two points between the teams heading into the final quarter as the tempo quickened in appalling conditions.

McKinney then left the minimum margin between the sides as the water break came at a good time for under pressure Eunan’s.

Gavin Browne gave them some breathing space with a point on the resumption and O’Donnell put a goal in it from a superbly struck 65.

But Burt was not finished as McKinney went for goal again from a close in free to leave Eunan’s leading by 1-12 to 1-10 with time almost up.

The inevitable O’Donnell landed another free for the winners to leave a goal in it again.

But Burt was not finished yet as they came in hordes towards the Burt goal.

They had two close- in frees which resulted in some frantic scenes in the Letterkenny goals.

The winners hung on for victory and they now meet Setanta in the final that will hopefully be played on a proper pitch.

St Eunan’s: Daniel McBride; Mark Mulholland, James O’Donnell, J P Curran; Conor Neely, Bernard Kelly, Matthew Noonan; Thomas Crossan (0-1), Chris Murray; Paul O’Donnell (0-9f), Cormac Finn (0-1), Russell Forde; Gavin Forde (0-2), Johnny Lambe (1-0)

Burt: Conor Harkin; James Donaghy, Michael Gill; Ciaran Curran, Padraig Curran, Ciaran Kelly; Jack Gallagher (0-1), Darius McColgan;Kevin Curran, Liam McKinney (1-81f), Jack Lavery; Odhran Devlin, Eanna McLaughlin (0-1), Peter Campbell. Subs: Leo Doherty for Ciaran Kelly (43)

Referee: Trever Moloney (Buncrana)