By Niall Gartland

TYRONE u-20 skipper Niall Devlin has packed a lot of experience into his short career, so he shouldn’t be too apprehensive about the prospect of leading out the team in this weekend’s Ulster U-20 Championship final against Cavan.

Devlin captained the intercounty minor team two years ago, and he’s already a hugely important player for his club, Coalisland.

He starred as his team reached the Tyrone Senior Championship final last year – an unforgettable run, it’s fair to say – and he was named as Coalisland’s footballer of the year when the awards were handed out at the end of the season. Moreover, from playing alongside lads like Padraig Hampsey and Michael McKernan, he knows what it takes to succeed at this level.

“The club has been great, and you can go to the likes of Paudie for advice on anything. Then you’ve other lads like Peter Donnelly, Stephen McNally, Plunkett Kane. You grow up aspiring to be like those boys so it’s great to be in this position of looking forward to an Ulster final,” he said.

It hasn’t always been smooth-sailing for Tyrone this year, and they were completely out of sorts when they shipped a bad beating against Donegal in the pre-season Leo Murphy Cup final. They’ve turned a corner, however, and gained redemption for that defeat with a fantastic win over the Tir Chonaill County in the Ulster semi-final.

“I definitely think that was the best thing for us, looking back now. We went out to win that game, it’s a bit of silverware at the end of the day, we were well-beaten, we regrouped, worked on a lot of things that weren’t right, looking back now it’s probably a good thing, definitely it was a big learning curve for us all.”

While Devlin showed his attacking instincts with an important goal against Donegal, he’s a defender first and foremost and he doesn’t have to go far for tips as manager Paul Devlin and his assistant Dermot Carlin are former defenders with Tyrone.

“Those lads are class, and I have to give ‘Mugsy’ (Owen Mulligan) a mention as well. The amount of experience Paul has, even managing teams, is brilliant, and Dermot was a Tyrone and Killyclogher stalwart so you learn a lot from those lads.”

Devlin also deflected the praise when asked about his goal against Donegal in extra-time, preferring to recognise the role played in the build-up by livewire forwards Ruairi Canavan and Gavin Potter.

“I saw the opportunity, Ruairi maybe gave me the ball first and I played a one-two with Gavin Potter. Gavin came on and scored 1-2 and I think he set up Conor Cush’s goal as well. He’d a big part to play and thankfully we got over the line.

“In fairness it was definitely a class game, one of the best games I’ve ever played in. It’s definitely one I’ll remember.”