EirGrid All-Ireland U-20 football championship semi-final report from MW Hire O'Moore Park, Portlaoise
Tyrone 1-14 Kerry 1-12
Ruairi Canavan stuck it to his county's critics after kicking Tyrone through to the EirGrid All-Ireland U-20 football final.
Canavan's eight-point haul helped see off Kerry in a tense Portlaoise encounter - securing a final clash with Kildare next weekend.
The son of Red Hands legend Peter, and younger brother of senior star Darragh, also played a key role in Ciaran Bogue's game breaking 58th minute goal.
Read more: Tyrone vs Kerry as it happened
Tyrone didn't lead until that score but when Bogue crashed a shot to the net after Canavan's initial shot off the post, they didn't look back.
The result is a timely pick-me-up for supporters after last weekend's devastating Ulster SFC loss to neighbours Derry.
Man of the Match Canavan gasped: "There's been men writing the county off.
"I'll not name them but they're writing the county off! Look, we just know the work rate that we have to put in each day.
"Our manager Paul Devlin talks about it, and Dermy Carlin and Mugsy (Owen Mulligan) - us forwards have to be the first line of defence and work really hard. That's what it takes."
The Kingdom won when the sides contested an All-Ireland minor quarter-final in 2019 and many of the same players clashed again.
Former All-Ireland minor winner Dylan Geaney hit 1-4 for Kerry including 1-1 early in the second-half which opened up a four-point lead.
They couldn't hold on though and Tyrone turned the screw in the final 20 minutes or so.
Kerry manager Declan O'Sullivan was returning to the venue where he was infamously struck by a handbag during a club game against Tyrone team Derrytresk a decade ago.
Bogue's 58th minute goal which put Tyrone ahead for the first time was surely an even greater blow to him this time.
O'Sullivan said of the crucial concession: "Look, you roll with the punches. In fairness, I don't think our fellas let it affect us. They came straight back and went after it again. I'm very proud of the lads."
Three Kevin Goulding points, and two from Geaney, left Kerry 0-6 to 0-5 up at half-time.
Conor Cush levelled it up at 0-6 apiece after the restart before Geaney struck a goal and a point in quick succession.
Cillian Burke set up both scores for Geaney and the pair combined again for Kerry's last point of the game deep into stoppage time.
But Tyrone had wrestled control of the game by that stage and their defence did a great job of denying Kerry a second goal late on.
TYRONE : S McMenamin; B Conway, E Corry, M Rafferty; D Muldoon, S Donaghy, N Devlin; R McHugh, M McGleenan (0-1); C Daly, J Donaghy, S O'Donnell (0-1); R Canavan (0-8, 3f, 1m), C Bogue (1-2), C Cush (0-2).
Subs: G Potter for O'Donnell 33-35, blood, Potter for Cush 51, L Donnelly for O'Donnell 63, E Montgomery for Bogue 63.
KERRY: D Burns (0-1, 1f); D O'Callaghan, A Dineen, J Nagle; E O'Connor, A Heinrich, T Cronin; R Murphy (0-2), S O'Brien; K Evans, T O'Donnell, E Looney; D Geaney (1-4, 0-2f), C Burke (0-1), K Goulding (0-4).
Subs: G Hassett for Evans 37, A Curran for Cronin 41, J Kissane for O'Donnell 48, T Doyle for Looney 52, J O'Connor for Goulding 57.
Referee: A Nolan (Wicklow).
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