Published: Wednesday, 3rd February, 2010 5:00pm

Under 21s beaten in Hastings decider

Niall McDermott gets away from his marker

The Cavan Under 21 team were left disappointed on Saturday when they were beaten by Roscommon in the Hastings Cup Final.

Having cruised to the final by comfortably beating off Longford and Leitrim, Cavan entered this game looking to maintain their unbeaten run. However, Roscommon, and in particular Donal Shine, had other ideas.

The full-forward was a constant threat to the Cavan rearguard and he finished the afternoon with an impressive personal tally of 1-8. The root of the problem for Cavan though was the quality of the ball they were allowing to be kicked into Shine from further out the field and the DCU student took full advantage.

Cavan, despite a poor first half performance, will look back on the game as one they could have won. Roscommon dominated possession for large parts and Cavan, at times, struggled to get decent service into their forward line.

However despite those problems, Roscommon never got out of their sights and Terry Hyland's charges almost nicked it at the end but the post and goalkeeper Darren O'Malley denied them two goals in as many minutes.

The contest got off to a sluggish start and Roscommon edged into a three point lead through a Shine free and two points from Paul Garvey.

Cavan took time to settle and by the time they got their opening score through David Givney, eight minutes had elapsed but six minutes later Niall Smith cut the gap to the minimum when showed an exceptional burst of pace to carve through the heart of the defence to tap over.

A routine free from Garvey kept Roscommon ticking over and they quickly added three points in succession through Shine. For the first, the full-forward rose above Patrick Carroll to grab the ball and he turned onto his left boot quickly to get his first point from play.

Constant pressure on the defence was forcing Cavan into fouling and Shine added two more frees to pull five clear. The boys in blue were pinned back in their own half but with five minutes to go Gearoid McKiernan showcased his abilities and registered two points after strong runs from midfield.

Shine added a free from the left-wing in injury-time though to leave Cavan down by four on a score-line of 0-8 to 0-4 at the interval.

Whatever was said to Cavan at half-time clearly worked and they came out looking revitalized. Brendan Fitzpatrick found Niall McDermott and the Ballinagh man jinked inside his man before curling over.

In the 37th minute, McKiernan got this third after some hard work from Oisin Minnagh in defence turned over possession and allowed Niall Smith to counter-attack before teeing up the giant midfielder.

Indeed soon after, Smith went from provider to finisher after being released by Declan McKiernan. Despite having yet to really get firing, Cavan were only down by one but Shine struck a killer blow with 16 minutes left.

Darren McDermott's cross-field ball fortuitously bounced into Shine's path and the target-man showed great composure to dink the ball into the Cavan net. Down the other end Niall McDermott had become the focal point of attack and he chipped in with a nice point only for Shine to immediately reply once again.

Cavan got their best score of the match in the 51st minute after a patient build-up allowed Declan McKiernan to point. Smith overturned the Roscommon defence and the ball found its way to McKiernan via Fitzpatrick and Conor and Colm Smith.

Roscommon again cancelled out that score though to stay four clear but the next five minutes completely belonged to Cavan as they looked for a way back into the game.

And in the 54th minute that chance came, when substitute Martin Dunne was found in space but his shot rattled the post and danger was averted.

Straight after, Dunne was found in space again but after dummying his way around three defenders the forward was forced to point under immense pressure.

That really was as good as it got for Cavan, as, after throwing everything at Roscommon, heads dropped after being denied two goals. They failed to score again and Cathal and Donal Shine chipped in with a point apiece to allow Roscommon to run out five-point victors.

Cavan: Martin Smith, Shane Gray, Patrick Carroll, Darragh Tighe, Daniel Graham, Oisin Minnagh, Joshua Hayes, Gearoid McKiernan (0-3), David Givney (0-1), Robert Maloney-Dernham, Declan McKiernan (0-1), Niall Smith (0-2), Conor Smith, Niall McDermott (0-2), Brendan Fitzpatrick

Subs: Kevin Meehan, Colm Smith, Packie Leddy, Declan Meehan, Martin Dunne (0-1)

Roscommon: Darren O'Malley, Paul O'Grady, Neill Collins, Michael Higgins, Niall Daly, James McKeague, Niall Carty, Hansi Kirrane, Kein Higgins, Paul Garvey (0-3,2f), Cathal Shine (0-1), Brian Murtagh, Darragh Lennon, Donal Shine (1-8, 5f), Darren McDermott

Subs: Enna Tieran (0-1)