Donegal 1-15
Louth 1-14
The Donegal minor footballers secured a narrow one-pointed victory over Louth to land the Paul McGirr Cup at the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds on Saturday evening.
Karl Lacey’s men performed well in the opening stanza of this showpiece, with scores from Niall McBrearty (2), Danny Og Cooney (2), Darragh O’Hare, Finn Gillespie, Oisin Mullan and MJ Ward helped them into a two-point lead at the break.
Half-time: Donegal 0-8-0-6 Louth
The wee county battled back in the early stages of the second stanza although and they hit the front in the 40th minute when Conor Marron found the back of the net.
With five minutes left on the clock, the two sides were level but Donegal came up with a vital score in the form of a major courtesy of Mark Wilkinson.
The Leinster outfit continued to battle and came close to finding the back of the net twice late on but Cormac Crossan produced a fine stop on both occasions to deny them.
The full-time whistle soon sounded at the Armagh venue, sealing a memorable victory for Karl Lacey’s young side.