Louth in control as gallant Longford exit the Leinster U-20 championship

Backboned by the bulk of the squad that reached the All-Ireland final in this grade last year, the much more experienced Louth team were in control against a gallant Longford outfit at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park on Sunday last. 

Louth . . . 0-18    Longford . . . 0-7 

While the home county did not deserve to lose by the wide margin of 11 points in the end, they generally found the going too tough against such strong opposition who are relentless in their pursuit of another Leinster U-20 title. 

While Longford struggled for the vital scores in the semi-final clash against a very well organised and tight marking Louth defence with Cormac Flynn landing the only point from play, the losers were guilty of shooting a total of 11 wides as compared to just five for the visitors who were a lot more economical up front. 

The Louth attack was razor sharp whenever they received the ball with Conor Mac Criosta, Tony McDonnell and Pearse Grimes Murphy particularly prominent in clocking up 0-12 between them on the march to the provincial decider against Kildare. 

It was just not to be for Longford who were clearly beaten by a better team but there were some fine individual displays, most notably the powerful midfielder Max Gallagher who produced a few great catches.

Gallagher got good support from Sean Fagan but unfortunately the forward division failed to fire with key men Luke Donnelly and Paddy Mollaghan failing to make the desired impact and both were eventually replaced during the course of the second half.

Longford’s tale of woe was complete when Cormac Flynn had a consolation goal disallowed for a dubious square infringement in the 58th minute and he was subsequently shown a red card for dissent with the decision, leaving his team with 14 players on the pitch. 

Just a couple of points separated the sides (0-6 to 0-4) when Flynn shot over the bar in the 17th minute but Louth then stepped up another gear to fire over four scores in a row that featured a brace of fisted strikes from the lightning quick Pearse Grimes Murphy.

Trailing by 0-10 to 0-4 at the break, Longford were given a glimmer of hope when Donnelly converted his second two-pointer free early in the second half and Louth had to wait until the 42nd minute for their next score with Conor Mac Criosta on target.

With the pressure eased the title holders dominated the remainder of the match in adding another seven points to their tally and the best Longford could manage was a converted free from James Hagan in the 51st minute.

Soon after a goal chance was created but the shot from wing back Sean Egan was very well saved by the opposing keeper Tiernan Markey with Louth keeping the scoreboard ticking over from there until the final whistle. 

Louth got off to a brilliant start with a two-pointer (play) from Tony McDonnell in the opening minute before Paddy Mollaghan free) opened the Longford account in the 5th minute.

Conor Mac Criosta was then on target for Louth who extended their advantage to 0-5 to 0-1 following a cracking two-pointer free converted by their goalkeeper Tiernan Markey. 

Back came Longford with a two-pointer free fired over the bar by Luke Donnelly in the 11th minute and just before that Shane Lennon missed a very good chance of a goal for Louth.

Scores were then exchanged between wing back Tadhg Devaney and Cormac Flynn and that was as good as it got for Longford.

Louth clocked up another 12 points during the remainder of the match with Adam Gillespie (free) and Sean Flynn also getting their names on the scoresheet in this comfortable win. 

LONGFORD: Darragh Egan (Carrickedmond); Mark Cooney (Clonguish), Ronan Burke (Ballymahon), Alan Mimnagh (Clonguish); Sean Egan (Carrickedmond), Colin Gilna (Abbeylara), Conor McHugh (Grattans); Sean Fagan (Abbeylara), Max Gallagher (Ardagh Moydow); Luke Donnelly (Colmcille, 0-4, 2 two-pointer frees), Jamie Dorr (Clonguish),William McEntire (Dromard); Cormac Flynn (Clonguish, 0-1), Paddy Mollaghan (St Brigid’s Killashee, 0-1, free), James Hagan (Clonguish, 0-1, free).

Subs:- Peter Farrell (Grattans) for W McEntire (14 mins); Cian O’Donnell (St Mary’s Granard) for L Donnelly (41 mins); Kevin Baskett (Clonguish) for P Mollaghan (43 mins); Shane Donohoe (Killoe Emmet Og) for P Farrell (48 mins); Daniel Galvin (Kenagh) for M Gallagher (stoppage time). 

LOUTH: Tiernan Markey (0-2, two-pointer free); Padraic Tinnelly, Michael Reid, Daniel Craven; Michael McGlew, Cormac McKeown, Tadhg Devaney (0-2); Conor McGinty, Colm Hackett; Shane Lennon, Tony McDonnell (0-6, 1 two-pointer play, 3 frees), Pearse Grimes Murphy (0-3); Adam Gillespie (0-1, free), Sean Flynn (0-1), Conor Mac Criosta (0-3).

Subs:- Donal McArdle for McGlew (46 mins); Andrew O’Reilly for Gillespie (48 mins); Cillian McQuillan for Grimes Murphy (55 mins); Donnacha Skinnader for Lennon (57 mins); Niall Morgan for Reid (stoppage time).

Referee: Kevin Williamson (Offaly).