Louth 1-19
Wicklow 1-14

Louth moved into the Leinster senior football championship quarter-finals after seeing off a plucky Wicklow side this afternoon at Parnell Park.

Ryan Burns and Eoin O'Connor led the way in the scoring stakes for Colin Kelly's side as they were pushed all the way by the Garden County, who were looking for their first championship win over Louth in 30 years.

O'Connor's 10th minute goal looked to have the would-be winners on route to victory but Wicklow hit back with a major of their own through Mark Kenny on 15 minutes to take an unlikely lead.

Louth recovered to move four points clear by half-time and although their opponents were within a point in the closing five minutes, four unanswered scores were enough to get Kelly's men over the line and into a quarter-final meeting with Meath on June 18th.

Louth were off the mark inside the first minute of this contest thanks to Ruairi Moore's early accurate effort and Burns would double their advantage by the third minute.

Seanie Furlong opened the Garden men's account two minutes later but the favourites would reap maximum profit from their next attack as Anthony Williams set-up the lethal O'Connor for a well-taken goal on 10 minutes.

Williams would be black-carded and replaced by Darragh McMahon soon afterwards and Wicklow would storm in front as Paul Cunningham and Furlong saw their points backed up by a Kenny goal after he'd pounced on a short kick-out from Craig Lynch.

Darren Hayden opened up a two-point lead for Johnny Magee's side but points from Paraic Smith and Burns levelled before Louth's marksman tacked on another free and O'Connor re-opened the two-point gap for them.

Conor French and Dean Healy brought the sides level for a second time in the 27th minute prior to the Wee County finishing out the half in impressive fashion.

Padraig Rath, Smith, O'Connor and Burns (free) all sailed over scores during a dominant 10-minute spell which had Kelly's men going in at the break with a 1-11 to 1-7 advantage.

Wicklow continued to feed Furlong inside in the early stages of the resumption and the Kiltegan sharpshooter repaid them with another score which was backed up by Cunningham to cut the margin down to two.

A Burns frees was erased by Cunningham after Healy got himself impeded in front of goal and the Garden men would be level again approaching the closing 15 minutes thanks to scores from Furlong and goal-scorer Kenny (free).

A coolly struck '45' from Burns was followed up by sub Jim McEneaney giving an immediate contribution for the leaders, cutting in for a fine point and the margin stood at three with 14 minutes to go after Declan Byrne had raised his first white flag of the afternoon.

Wicklow's brave challenge looked to be fading at that stage but they came up with consecutive points from John McGrath and goalkeeper Robert Lambert (free) to keep the pressure on.

A rousing point from McEneaney at the other end was just what the doctor ordered for Louth though and they finished out this contest with points from Gerard McSorely, Byrne and Bevan Duffy to ensure a last eight date with the Royals next month.

Louth - C Lynch; P Rath (0-1), P Reilly, K Carr; C McKeever (0-1), J Bingham, A Williams; T Durnin, J Stewart; D Marks, P Smith (0-2), B Duffy (0-1); R Moore (0-1), E O'Connor (1-2), R Burns (0-6, 5f). Subs: D McMahon for A Williams (BC), J McEneaney (0-2) for C McKeever, D Byrne (0-2) for R Moore, S Mulroy for R Burns, G McSorley (0-1) for P Smith, K Murphy for D Marks.

Wicklow - R Lambert (0-1f); C Hyland, S Kelly, B Kennedy; J Crowe, P McLoughlin, D Fitzgerald; D Boothman (0-1), N Gaffney; C Ffrench (0-1), D Healy (0-1), D Hayden (0-1); M Kenny (1-1), S Furlong (0-4, 3f), P Cunningham (0-3, 1f). Subs: J McGrath (0-1) for P Cunningham, A McLoughlin for D Boothman, P Traynor for P McLoughlin, R Finn for M Kenny.

Referee - N Cullen.

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