Leinster U21FC: Louth hold on to book final spot
March 22, 2012
Louth's William Woods gets away from Offaly's Jake Kavanagh during the Leinster U21 semi final at Pairc Tailteann. TO VIEW A SELECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS FOR THIS GAME CLICK HERE
Offaly 0-8
Louth football received a much-needed boost at Pairc Tailteann last night when the Wee County withstood a second half fightback from Offaly to reach the Cadbury Leinster U21FC final for the first time since 1996.
A dominant first half performance paved the way for Louth's victory which leaves them just 60 minutes away from a first provincial U21 title in over 30 years. But they will have it all to do against a crack Dublin outfit who clocked up another big score in the other semi-final against Westmeath.
Colin Kelly's charges flew out of the starting blocks to lead by 0-4 to 0-1 after 11 minutes thanks to scores from Peter Kirwan and William Woods. Playing outside the familiar surroundings of Gracefield for the first time in the campaign, Offaly struggled for much of the first half and their cause was not helped by some poor misses from frees by Anton Sullivan and they went into the break trailing by 0-1 to 0-6.
But Pascal Kellaghan's charges were much improved after the restart and with first half substitute Peter Cunningham helping himself to five points, they reduced the deficit to the minimum before the same player missed a glorious chance to level from a free in the 59th minute.
Following that let-off, Brian Berrill kicked the insurance point for Louth who finished the game with 14 men after Ruairi Moore was sent off a second yellow card in the closing stages.
Louth - J Flanagan; C Murray, D Campbell, T Hand; M McKeown, P Reilly, A Williams; E O'Connor (0-1), S O'Hanlon (0-1); R Moore (0-1), C Bellew, P Kirwin (0-1); B Rogan (0-2), W Woods (0-2), B Hamilton (0-1). Subs: E Duffy for McKeown, B Berrill (0-1) for Hamilton, E O'Neill for Kirwan.
Offaly - G Shiels; C Donoghue, E Rigney, J Kavanagh; S Hannon, J Ledwith, J McPadden; M Brazil, D Kelly; D Hogan (0-1), A Sullivan (0-1), G Guilfoyle; T Spain, B Allen, S Cullen. Subs: M Young for Cullen, P Cunningham (0-5) for Spain, N Bracken for Kavanagh, D Hanlon for Donoghue, A McDonagh (0-1) for Hannon.
Ref - F Barry (Kildare).
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