City of Derry miss out as Dromore crowned Ulster Junior Cup champions

City of Derry 17, Dromore 30

Some days are just not meant to be while some days are let slip through your fingers. For City Derry, Saturday's Junior Cup final against Dromore at Kingspan Stadium was the latter.

Richard McCarter's men were appearing in a first cup final in 14 years and targeting a first cup win since that unforgettable All Ireland Junior Cup win of 2010, but failed to produce anything like their best on a day when they were always second best. Too many handling errors and too many missed tackles won't win many cup finals and while the Derry spirit could never be questioned - two late tries typified a team that won't stop until the final whistle - those scores couldn't mask a day to forget for the Judges Road men.

Stephen Corr and Jake McDevitt carried the fight for the ‘Green and Black’ but they had left themselves with too much to do after the opening quarter. Dromore got Derry in a stranglehold from the first whistle and forged a 15 point lead inside 20 odd minutes, a cushion that would ultimately take them to the trophy despite finishing the game with only 13 men on the field.

Facing into a stiff breeze first half, things couldn't have started much worse for McCarter's side, a try down inside two minutes and a man down inside seven with Sam Duffy seeing yellow as Dromore drove forward from Derry's own kick-off.

The disappointment for the Judges Road men was, for all Dromore's pressure in the opening quarter, they didn't have to work hard for their tries.

The opener arrived with just over one minute on the clock and Derry still reeling from conceding a penalty as they chased their own kick-off. Dromore played for territory and once inside the Derry '22, they turned the screw, with the ball eventually worked left where Josh Brame released winger Andrew Rutledge to break the covering tackle and score in the corner.

Lee Steenson's conversion was missed but the try had unsettled Derry and they were 15 points down by the time they showed any signs of having regained composure.

Losing the influential Duffy didn't help but Derry's main issue was the number of first up tackles that were being missed although Stephen Corr produced a magnificent try saving one on Dromore winger Brian McClearn 12 minutes in to keep the Co. Down's side's lead at five. However it proved only a stay of execution.

Within 60 seconds of Corr's brilliant tackle, Dromore full-back Adam McDonald was waltzing through a non-existent Derry defence to run in from his own half. That allowed Steenson to convert and Derry trailed by 12.

A Steenson penalty then took the lead out to 15 by the 21st minute before Derry finally got a foothold as Alex McDonnell's clever kick to the corner almost saw the 'Green and Black' drive over from a decent rolling maul. That they were held up was typical of an afternoon when little went right.

McDonnell's penalty finally got Derry on the scoreboard just past the half hour and it wasn't until those final 10 minutes of the opening half that Derry started making inroads into the Dromore '22.

However, that wasn't before Dromore - even with No. 8 Ryan Hughes off on a yellow card - once again took advantage of poor Derry defence, Steenson this time the beneficiary as he broke through to make it 3-20 with five minutes of the half remaining.

A half to forget for Derry was capped when they worked an excellent overlap on the left in first half injury time only for a loose pass to close down the opportunity with two men waiting to run in a try that may had stemmed the Dromore tide.

Instead Derry went in 17 behind at the break and it didn't improve after the restart as McClearn ran his his second of the day to take the lead out to 3-27. Derry's second yellow card of the day, substitute Gary McKinley this time falling foul of the referee, merely compounded a difficult situation.

Even when Dromore's Hughes was shown a red card following a second yellow card offence of the day, Graeme Eastwood's men were able to extend their lead to 3-30 courtesy of another Steenson penalty following more loose Derry play.

To their credit, Derry heads never dropped but the frustration of a day that had got away from them was littering everything they did. Numerous times they had decent field position but it wasn't until the 72nd minute that they finally made it tell, McDonnell breaking to release David Lapsley who ran in round under the posts to score.

McDonnell converted but even at 10-30, there was little hint of a comeback, not even when Dromore winger McClearn blotted his own copybook with a 74th minute yellow card that saw him sit out the closing stages and Dromore finish with 13.

That numerical advantage saw Derry push forward in waves and Corr's tenacity in the break-down brought the opening that allowed Killene Thornton to grab a loose ball and dive over for a converted try that brought it back to 17-30.

It mattered little to the outcome. This was Dromore's day and they fully deserved it. Derry's biggest disappointment was they rarely made them work for it.

City of Derry: Fearghus Canning, Cathal Cregan, Sam Duffy, Cein McColgan, Tiarnan Dillon, Tiarnan Thornton, Jake McDevitt, Stephen Millar, Jamie Millar, Alex McDonnell, Jack Beattie, David Lapsley, David Graham, Ross McLaughlin, Killene Thornton. (Replacements) Adam Marley, Tom Cameron, Gary McKinley, Ryan Higgins, Simon Logue.

Dromore: Adam Hanna, Rory Stewart, Andrew Black, Ross Stewart, Adam McDonald, Matty McMaster, Richard Dickson, Ryan Hughes, Lee Steenson, Aaron Stewart, Andrew Rutledge, Josh Brame, Dean Dillon, Brian McClearn, Adam McDonald. (Replacements) Mark Hylands, Ben Russell, Ben Carey, Jack Dillon, Josh Quigley.

Referee: Chris Cahoon