Derry, playing into the wind, started with a flourish, and were three points up inside the opening five minutes, with Gavin McGeehan, Lee Moore and wing back Neil Forrester all on target.

Down took a quarter of an hour to get their first score through Ruairi Digney, but were only a point adrift by the break. Sean Murdock and Digney converted frees and Chris Killen kicked a point in stoppage time, after Stephen Cleary had knocked over two neat points from play for Derry.

Two Ben O'Reilly frees edged Down in front for the first time midway through the second half, and Derry needed a late equaliser from Moore to send the tie to extra time. Derry soon opened up a 0-12 to 0-9 lead, however, and points from Cailean O'Boyle and Emmet Green clinched the title for Derry.

DERRY A Warnock; M McKinney, C McKeague (0-1), D Bell; D Heavron, E Green (0-1), N Forrester (0-1); P Heaney, C O'Boyle (0-1); S Cleary (02), A Heron (0-2), L Kennedy; C McFeely, G McGeehan (0-2), L Moore (0-3, 3f) Subs J Devlin for Heaney, C McWilliams for Kennedy, D Donnelly for Cleary, A Mullan (0-1) for McFeely, B Henry for Heavron, C Nevin for McGeehan, L Morrow for Devlin, N O'Kane for Heron DOWN K Gordon; C Doyle, R Mallon, N Higgins; R Boyle, M Higgins, R McGovern; R Digney (0-3, 3f), D Turley; G Trainor, C Killen (0-1), C Poland; B O'Reilly (0-3, 3f), S Murdock (0-2, 1 free), C Flanagan Subs P McPolin for Trainor, O Pyers for Flanagan, D Kavanagh for Boyle, S Murney for N Higgins, R Brady for Pyers