Louth minors defeat Offaly to secure their place in knockout stages

For the second year running, Louth secured maximum points from their opening two games of their Leinster Minor Championship campaign to secure a place in the knockout stages with this victory over Offaly in Hunterstown on Thursday evening.

Aside from the second quarter which saw Offaly recover from an early Wee County scoring blitz to only trail by five at the break, and the concession of two late second half goals.

Louth can be happy with their night’s work as they largely dominated proceedings, on a night where all six starting forwards added their names to the score sheet, especially Connel Kelly, who was simply on fire, scoring 2-9 over the hour, in a game were Louth amassed 17 scores from 23 shots over the hour.

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The Dreadnots forward was unstoppable on the night, and his ninth minute goal epitomised Louth’s fast start early on, with Johnny Clerkin’s side storming out of the blocks to lead by 1-7 to no score after 10 minutes.

Conal Mannion who was lively early on, opened the scoring in a move involving Tom Maguire and Tadgh Devanney who were once again influential from a Wee County perspective, with Devanney finishing with 18 possessions in this game.

Two Kelly frees followed on from Mannion’s early strike, before Mannion again landed Louth’s fourth point after 6 minutes.

Louth were purring at this stage, with slick movement of the ball both through the hands and with the boot, and Conell Kelly converted his first score from play following great tenacity from Andrew O’Reilly in the turnover.

Following more neat play through the hands from Tadgh Devanney and Jack Martin, Conell Kelly lashed home Louth’s first major, making it 1-5 to no score in his side’s favour after 8 minutes.

Kelly’s green flag happened moments after Louth keeper Senon Connolly denied Offaly’s Dylan Dunne, a chance you felt Offaly needed to convert to have any chance to getting back into this game.

Another player who impressed on the night was the highly talented Cillian McQuillan, and he fired over the first of his four 2 pointed shots on the night to give Louth that 10 point lead inside 10 minutes. McQuillan himself finished with 19 possessions on the night.

Shellshocked, Offaly eventually got their name on the board thanks to a 45 from keeper Jack Ryan.

This signalled the start of a purple patch for the Faithful County, with Eamon Maher and Charlie Duffy starting to take a foothold in midfield, while Dylan Dunne provided an impressive outlet for his side’s kickouts from the centre half forward position.

Either side of a two pointed free from Conell Kelly for Louth, Offaly managed to make inroads into the deficit, with Dylan Dunne and Cathal Weldon pointing, before a fine strike from Cian McNamee following a fine fetch from Tadgh Kelly from a kickout, left it at 1-9 to 0-4 in Louth’s favour by the end of the first quarter.

Jack Ryan (f), and Dylan Dunne closed the gap to five, before Louth upped the ante to stretch their lead to seven, with more quick, flowing moves involving players like Oisin Reidy, Tom Maguire, and Andrew O’Reilly, leading to further scores for Conal Mannion, Jack Martin, and Cian Rooney making it 1-12 to 0-7.

This did not deter Offaly, who tried to punch holes in the Louth rearguard. Following a fine strike from Ruairi Woods, Offaly came very close to landing a crucial major, with Aaron Daly’s low drive once again kept out by the foot of keeper Senon Connolly.

Oisin Reidy who finished with 21 possessions for Louth, became the fifth forward to register on the scoreboard for Louth, but Offaly once again roared back into the game to leave five between the sides at the break, through sub Eoin Rouse, Aaron Daly and Dylan Dunne, making it 1-13 to 0-11 at the interval.

Second Half:

The third quarter saw Louth take firm control of the game, with Cillian McQuillan in particular treating those present in Hunterstown to long range kicking of the highest quality, as the Finbarr’s clubman landed three further two pointers to knock wind out of Offaly sails.

These two pointers from McQuillan were followed up by a second major from Conell Kelly thanks to impressive breaking of the lines from the athletic Michael McGlew as Louth led by 2-22 to 0-13 by the end of the third quarter.

Frees from Dylan Dunne and Cian McNamee were Offaly’s sole response in that time, but McNamee who was lively throughout was also denied by Louth’s Senon Connolly in that period.

Conell Kelly added another score beside his name from a free, while marauding half back Conor Marron fired over the bar for a score which his own performance also merited.

However, one of the scores of the night emanated from sub Niall McCreesh who showed great tenacity to hang onto a long ball played into him, before kicking over on the angle, while Finbarr’s clubmate Andrew O’Reilly concluded the scoring for the Wee County.

Offaly who finished with 14 players following the second half dismissal of sub Eoin Rouse for two yellow cards, were playing for pride at this stage. But they did manage to breach the Louth defence with two late goals from sub Cian Duffy and Cian McNamee to put some respectability on the scoreline, while sub Tony Furey converted a two pointer free, but the outcome had long been decided.

Louth can now look forward to a top of the group clash against Dublin next week for a chance to advance to the semi final of the Leinster championship, with a quarter final spot safely secured with this nine-point win.

Louth: Senon Conolly; Finn McEneaney, Ciaran Titley, Rian Hickey; Michael McGlew, Tadgh Devanney, Conor Marron (0-1); Tom Maguire, Cillian McQuillan (0-8) (4tp); Oisin Reidy (0-1), Andrew O’Reilly (0-1), Conal Mannion (0-3); Cian Rooney (0-1), Jack Martin (0-1), Conell Kelly (2-9) (5f) (2 tpf).

Subs: Senan Hoey for Mannion (39), Niall McCreesh (0-1) for Rooney (45), Chris Conlon for Titley (49), Ruairi Carpenter for Marron (54), Luke Woods for Martin (55).

Offaly: Jack Ryan (0-3) (2f) (one ’45); Cormac Farrell, Daniel Stoyanov, Caden O’Beirne; Tomos Carroll, Tadgh Kelly, Stephen Byrne; Eamonn Maher, Charlie Duffy: Isaac Ryan, Dylan Dunne (0-5) (1f), Aaron Daly (0-2); Cathal Weldon (0-1), Cian McNamee (1-2) (1f), Ruairi Woods (0-1).

Subs: Eoin Rouse (0-1) for Byrne (23), Tony Furey (0-2) (1 tpf) for Weldon (41), Patrick Duffy for Ryan (44), Cian Duffy (1-0) for Charlie Duffy (52).

Referee: Cathal Boland (Co Westmeath).