Louth progress to Leinster U20 FC quarter-final

Louth advanced to the EirGrid Leinster Football U20 Championship quarter-final after suffering a narrow defeat against Kildare in Darver on Tuesday night. 

The Wee County were second best in the first half and were dealt the sucker punch of two quickfire goals to trail at the break, before mounting a thrilling second-half comeback to cut the deficit to one point at the end of the affair. 

Louth came into the fixture with a 100% record and undefeated having seen off tough competition in Offaly and Longford in the previous two rounds of the group. 

Fergal Reel’s side made five changes to their fifteen ahead of the tie with Keelan Martin replacing Ronan Deery, Cormac McKeown coming in for Shane Halpenny, Aaron McGlew starting ahead of Conor McGinty, Darragh Dorian replacing Pearse Grimes-Murphy, and Liam Flynn coming in for Adam Gillespie. 

The home side had a bright start and created the first real chance of the game when Kieran McArdle forced a save from Kildare goalkeeper David McPartlin.

It was the Lilywhites who hit first when Ryan Sinkey converted a free for the first score of the game with eight minutes played. 

The Reds responded through a free of their own when St. Brides clubman McArdle knocked the ball over from the 45-meter line to level things one point apiece. 

Kildare began to dominate proceedings for most of the first half and left the home side with a mountain to climb if they were to get back into the game.

Two goals in quick succession from Sam Savage, and Oisín Grufferty, gave Seán O’Dea’s team an eight-point cushion at half-time. 

Louth only scored two points in the first half, courtesy of points by McArdle (f), and James Maguire (f) with neither of them coming from open play. The score at the interval was Louth 0-2 and Kildare 2-4 

Half Time 

The Lilywhites fired first and extended their advantage to nine points at the beginning of the second half when Colm Dalton fired over before Louth took a grip of the match and scored seven points without reply. 

McArdle (f)(45), Maguire, Aaron McGlew, Seán Callaghan, Maguire, Dara McDonnell, and Seán Reynolds all scored in a 19-minute spell to launch a brave comeback and reduce the scoreline to two points with five minutes remaining. 

Midfielder Dara Crowley fired back for the visitors for their second point of the second half before James Maguire (f) and Liam Flynn scored for the Wee County in injury time of the game to put a point separating the sides at the final whistle.

Kildare held tight for the win as it finished Louth 0-11 Kildare 2-6. 

Offaly were defeated by Longford in the other Group 1 tie which means that the score difference did not determine the final league table finishing positions. 

Louth secured second place in the EirGrid Leinster U20 Football Championship Group 1 table meaning they progressed to the quarterfinals where they will host Group 2 runner-up Wicklow in another crucial clash at home next week. 

Reflecting after the exciting encounter, Louth captain, Seán Reynolds said: “We are delighted to still be in the championship. I thought it was gone there at half-time when we were eight points down. 

“But we fought back well in the second half to get back to a point and could have maybe stolen it at the end, but just delighted to still be in the championship. 

“It reminded me of Wicklow. Last year we were eight points down at halftime in the last group game and we came back. 

"This team has great character to come back there and show a great fight. We pressed up on them in the second half, and showed we can mix it with the best – so we will take a lot from that. 

With an eight-point difference at half time, and then a further point behind at the beginning of the second half, the full forward described what the players were thinking on the pitch. 

“We didn’t believe that we would be able to come back,” said the Stabannon youngster. “We always knew that it was within us, we didn’t play well at all in the first half and could have been even more down. 

“We knew in the second half if we came out and gave a performance and threw everything at it that we would tighten it up and give ourselves a chance. 

“It is just unfortunate that a few wee calls didn’t go our way and maybe we could have stolen it but look we will take a lot from it. 

He continued, “We played into the wind in the first half thinking we would have it in the second half and came out after halftime thinking we would have a gale force and it was just like a summer's day out there. 

"You just have to play. This time of year, as we saw last week, you don't know what weather you’re going to get around here.” 

The captain was full of praise for his teammate's forward line in particular. He said: “We have serious scoring power when we get on top of teams, but we only play in patches seems to be our problem. 

“We really put a thirty-minute performance in there to comeback and we will be happy with that and take a lot from it. 

He concluded by stating: “We didn’t know the score in Offaly, so we thought we had to win the game, or we were out, so we threw the kitchen sink at it.  

“We didn’t even know that Longford won until the end of the game when they were roaring at us to put the ball over the bar with two points down. I kind of knew then that something was up,” he added. 

“It’s tough going, you are just going from game to game. I think it is at home next week so that is something to look forward to and we will build for that now next Tuesday night. 

Louth: Cian O’Donoghue; Keelan Martin, Cameron Maher, Fionn Tipping; Tadhg McDonnell, Cormac McKeown, James Maguire; James Rogers, Seán Callaghan; Dara McDonnell, Kieran McArdle, Aaron McGlew; Darragh Dorian, Seán Reynolds (c), Liam Flynn 

Substitutes: Pearse Grimes-Murphy for James Rogers 26’, Ronan Daly for Fionn Tipping 38’, Adam Gillespie for Darragh Dorian 38’, and Tadhg Kellet for Aaron McGlew 60’ 

Kildare: David McPartlin; Rob Fitzgerald, Eoin Lawlor, Ethan Mointaine; Oisín Grufferty, James Harris, Colm Dalton; Dara Crowley, Fionn Crooke; Killian Browne, Niall Dolan (c), Mark Gibbons; Ryan Sinkey, Ross Harris, Sam Salvage 

Substitutes: Eoin Sheelan, Seán Mahon, Charlie Murphy, Niall Cramer, Niall Cullen, TJ Nolan, Ben Ryan, Ben Loakman, Josh O’Donoghue 

Referee: Kieran Olwell (Magh nEalta)