Longford minors no match for Louth in Seamus Heaney Cup exit

Tony Devlin (Clonguish), the manager of the Longford minor football squad Photo: Syl Healy

placeholder image — Tony Devlin (Clonguish), the manager of the Longford minor football squad Photo: Syl Healy

Leinster Minor (U-17) Football Tournament - Seamus Heaney Cup Semi-Final

Louth . . . 4-21 Longford . . . 3-7

Making the long trip to the Louth GAA Centre of Excellence in Darver, Longford started the game brightly with Jack Fitzpatrick firing over the opening score.

Louth then started to take control of the game with a number of scores from the excellent Adam Gillespie who was a constant thorn in Longford's side until his replacement in the second half.

Gillespie’s goal after 10 minutes was cancelled out by Daniel Lee who tapped a rebound into the net after a save by the Louth keeper.

A point apiece from Kevin Baskett (free) and Cormac Flynn (Kilmore) kept Longford in touch but 2-6 without reply from the 20th minute put rampant Louth in a commanding lead.

A foul on Cormac Flynn resulted in a penalty, which was calmly converted by Kevin Baskett to leave a half-time score of Louth 3-13 Longford 2-4.

Both sides proceeded to introduce unlimited substitutes throughout the second half with Daniel Lee getting his second goal along with a couple of frees converted by Kevin Baskett and a late point from Enda Quinn to complete the Longford scoring.

Although Tony Devlin’s side lost all three games in the group stage of the Leinster Minor Championship, there was some consolation in the second tier Seamus Heaney Cup with wins over Westmeath and Carlow to their credit.

LONGFORD: Darragh Egan (Carrickedmond); Ryan Keogh (Killoe), Patrick Clancy (Killashee), Daniel Lee (Killoe, 2-0); Kevin Baskett (Clonguish, 1-4, 3f and penalty goal), Alex Nugent (Mostrim), Jack Fitzpatrick (Killoe, 0-1); Daniel Carey (Clonguish), Sean Egan (Carrickedmond); Jamie Dorr (Clonguish), Davin Donnelly (Killoe), Patrick Mollahan (Killashee); James Hagan (Clonguish), Luke Donnelly (Colmcille), Cormac Flynn (Kilmore, Clonguish, 0-1).

Subs (unlimited) used in the second half:- Ryan Farrell (Colmcille), Paul Eivers (Killoe), Tommy Tully (Killoe), Shane Donohoe (Killoe), Tommy Killian (Killashee), Marc Cooney (Clonguish), Conor Doherty (Killoe), Cormac Flynn (Clonguish), Enda Quinn (Killoe, 0-1) and Rian Browne (Ballymore).