Louth had their shooting boots on at Drogheda as they chalked up a 1-16 to 0-11 victory over Leitrim.

The victory sends Colin Kelly's men into Monday's draw for the second round of the football Qualifiers, while Leitrim's year is over.

Substitute Conor Grimes' 48th-minute major finally saw the winners pull away from their gritty opponents in a match that had been competitive up until that stage. From the moment Grimes pounced, only the home supporters were enjoying themselves!

Three points from Ronan Holdcroft and three converted James Califf frees helped Louth take a 0-11 to 0-8 lead at the end of a very entertaining first half, with Fergal Clancy lofting over four beauties for the visitors. 

Califf smashed over a superb 50-metre free from the left wing to give the Wee County the lead in the third minute and the outstanding Bevan Duffy doubled the gap as the Reds started purposefully. On six minutes, Leitrim mounted their first attack of note and it was punctuated by a good Kevin Conlan point.

Holdcroft and Clancy traded points, with Louth's Padraig Rath receiving a black card in between. Clancy brought Leitrim back on terms again and the hosts' first wide came from a Colm Judge free in the 13th minute.

Paraic Smith, Holdcroft - after a great catch from Duffy - and Ryan Burns fired over quickfire points as the home side led by double scores at the midway stage in the first half, 0-6 to 0-3. Clancy's third point - a lovely left-footed finish from 45 yards - kept the visitors in touch and Alan McLoughlin made it a one-point game again but a confident Califf free from distance restored the Wee County's two-point advantage.

Judge and Burns supplied further Louth points either side of Clancy's fourth - and a Conlan finish on 32 minutes kept Shane Ward's charges very much in touch, 0-9 to 0-7. But Califf pointed his third free via the upright on the stroke of half time and St Fechins ace Holcroft immediately added his third from play off the outside of the boot. Conlan pointed a free with the last kick of the first half to leave three between them.

Smith's point in the second minute of the second half was cancelled out by a great Conlan free. Smith then left four between them before substitute Conor Grimes powered through and batted off two opponents to plant the ball into the bottom right corner of the Leitrim net: 1-13 to 0-9.

Danny Beck had a glimpse of goal for the visitors but took his point and Louth hit back with points from young stars Grimes and Burns before Conlan tapped over a Leitrim free as the gap stayed at seven.

Right at the death, after a long spell without any scores, substitute Derek Maguire arced over a magnificent Louth point from close to the corner flag. A fitting end to the best day of the year so far for Louth!

Louth - C Lynch; P Rath, D Finnegan, A Williams; D Byrne (0-1), D O'Hanlon, A Reid; T Durnin, J Califf (0-3f); B Duffy (0-1), P Smith (0-3), C McKeever; R Burns (0-2, 1f), C Judge (0-1), R Holdcroft (0-3). Subs: E Lafferty for P Rath (BC), D Maguire (0-1) for C McKeever, C Grimes (1-1) for R Burns, G McSorley for P Smith, R Moore for B Duffy, P Kirwan for R Holdcroft.

Leitrim - C McCrann; M Murphy, R Gallagher, N Woods; S McWeeney, G Reynolds, S Quinn; D Sweeney, S Moran; D Beck (0-1), P McGowan, K Conlan (0-5, 3f); F Glancy (0-4), D Wrynn, A McLoughlin (0-1). Subs: J McGrail for S Moran, R Kennedy for P McGowan, C Farrell for D Beck, M Plunkett for D Wrynn.

Referee - C Brannigan.

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