All-Ireland Minor Football final: Derry beat Monaghan 1-13 to 0-9 to reclaim title

Derry regained the title for the first time since winning the delayed 2020 competition in 2021

Fourteen-man Derry regained the All-Ireland Minor Football title with a 1-13 to 0-9 victory over Ulster rivals Monaghan at the Athletic Grounds.

The Oak Leafers led 0-8 to 0-6 at the break and stretched their lead to four before Cahir Spiers was shown a straight red card.

But the defender's dismissal did not derail Derry, who scored a goal through James Sargent.

It is Derry's sixth All-Ireland title at minor level.

"I'm seriously proud of the team overall," Derry boss Damian McErlain, in his second stint in charge of the minors, told TG4.

"The whole squad, we've 34 players and a lot of boys who haven't had much game time. They've stuck with us all year and that's tough to do, but shows the maturity from the parents and the lads themselves."

Monaghan had been hoping to exact revenge on Ulster after losing to them in the Ulster Minor Championship group stages and final, the latter of which was a gut-wrenching penalty shootout defeat.

But extra-time and penalties were not required in Armagh in what was the first All-Ireland Minor final between two Ulster counties as McErlain's side marched to a comfortable eight-point triumph despite playing the last 20 minutes with 14 men.

While Monaghan's Sean Og McElwain scored arguably the pick of the first-half scores, Ger Dillon landed four frees to help Derry lead by two at the break.

Dillon added a fifth quickly after the restart before Conall Higgins - who was named man of the match after battling sickness in the build-up to the match - stretched the lead to four.

Monaghan were given renewed hope when Spiers was shown a red card following a clash with Tomas Quinn, but after Donnacha Connolly trimmed the deficit to three, Oisin Doherty pointed before teeing up Sargent for the game's only goal after 47 minutes.

Sargent's close-range major extended Derry's cushion to seven points and Monaghan were unable to mount a fightback as the Oak Leaf county reclaimed the Tom Markham Cup in front of a 13,754-strong crowd.

Matthew Finn (0-4) top scored for the Farney county, whose wait for a first All-Ireland Minor title goes on.

Derry and Monaghan's senior sides are in All-Ireland semi-final action against Kerry and Dublin respectively next week, with both games to be shown on the BBC iPlayer, BBC Two Northern Ireland and the BBC Sport website.

A big crowd watched Sunday's final at the Athletic Grounds