Down withstood a late Donegal rally to deservedly book their place in next month’s Ulster minor championship final when they had two points to spare over a gallant Donegal side at St Tiernachs Park Clones on Saturday evening.

There was little between the teams throughout with a fortunate Ross McGarry goal in the 46th minute ultimately proving to be the difference between the two sides in the end and Down manager Mark Turley was delighted at the final whistle.

“It was a fortunate goal but I think that we were due one. There is tremendous character within them young fellas. There is only one of them who played any part last year, that’s the only experience within that team, and the guts and determination that they showed was superb, I’m very proud of them.

“We aren’t as strong physically to be able to burst past players but we have worked hard on how to move the ball quickly and it paid off there today and it’s great to be back in another Ulster final.”

The winners managed to shade the first half after recovering from a poor start that saw Donegal establish a 1-3 to 0-3 lead with Dermot Molloy getting a slight touch to a long delivery in from Patrick McBrearty to divert the ball to the net. Down responded with scores from Robbie White, Ross McGarry and Matthew Bagnall to lead 0-7 to 1-3 at the interval.

By the end of the third quarter the gap was still only two points after White and Mark Haughey had exchanged points with Ward before McGarry and Donegal midfielder Peter McGonagle contested a loose ball after Haughey’s shot had come off the post and the rebound finished up in the net. Down never looked back after that and although Donegal cut their lead with scores from Molloy and substitute Jamie Doherty, Down went through.

Donegal: P Boyle, E Faulkner, P Devine, S O’Kennedy [0-1], T McKinley, C Ellis, C Greaney, F McGinley [0-1], P McGonagle, M McEniff, D Molloy [1-2], C Barrett, P McBrearty, C Gallagher, O Ward [0-3]. Subs - O McGinty for McEniff, J Doherty [0-1] for C Barrett, A Lyons for Ward

Down : J Deeney, M Devlin, S McNamee, D O’Hanlon [0-1], K McClorey, C McClean, P Boyle, C Mooney, N McParland, C Clarke [0-1], R White [0-5], P Quinn, M Bagnall [0-1], R McGarry [1-1], D McKibben. Subs - R Doran for Devlin, M Haughey [0-1] for Quinn, K Quinn for Clarke, F McEvoy for Mooney

Referee - JJ Cleary, Derry