Reigning Ulster and All-Ireland Under-21 champions Tyrone began their double title defence with a six point quarter final win over Cavan on Wednesday night.
Not short of pedigree at this grade themselves, Cavan trailed by just a point after a low scoring first half, and with less than 20 minutes left the teams were still level at 0-7 apice.
Yet with senior players Lee Brennan and Cathal McShane among the few remaining from last year's team, there was no panic among their ranks.
Eight minutes on and McShane was integral in setting up Colm Byrne for the first goal of the game, the second then coming from Ben McDonnell with five minutes left on the clock - practically sealing it.
Last year’s Ulster runners-up Donegal also returned to the semi-finals, defying their mounting injury list with a one point win over Derry.
Stephen McBrearty hit the winner with a free deep in injury time, after a late Niall Toner goal looked to have edged it for Derry.
Elsewhere the 14 men of Down were hit for five goals in their derby defeat to Armagh - while Monaghan finished strongly to beat Fermanagh by 15 points, having led by only two at the interval.
Ulster quarter-finals:
Down 0-9 Armagh 5-16
Cavan 0-10 Tyrone 2-10
Monaghan 1-15 Fermanagh 0-3
Donegal 0-14 Derry 2-7
