Fourteen-man Louth came up with the second-half goods to score a 1-17 to 1-9 victory over Wicklow in Bray in the second round of the O'Byrne Cup.

Andy McDonnell was red carded after just 13 minutes for the winners as they went on to lead by 1-8 to 1-6 at the break.

Louth had goaled through John Clutterbuck but saw it cancelled out by Gearoid Murphy’s rocket shot and it was only the expert free taking of Ryan Burns that saw them up by two come the interval.

Wayne Kierans’ charges took over from the start of the second-half however, as points from Declan Byrne, Tommy Durnin and Sam Mulroy had them very much on their way prior to a late brace from Ciaran Downey rounding off the eight-point win.

Westmeath required a late, late point from Paddy Fagan to rescue a draw against neighbours Offaly at the St Loman’s 3G in Mullingar.

Jack Cooney’s side took the first lead through James Maxwell but soon found themselves on the back foot as scores from Anton Sullivan, Bernard Allen, Niall Darby and Shane Tierney (two frees) had the visitors up by 0-6 to 0-4 at half-time.

The sides were level 10 minutes into the resumption thanks to Ger Egan’s well-taken score and they’d be squared three more times before Tierney’s free looked like handing John Maughan his first victory as Offaly manager.

However, Fagan held his nerve deep in injury-time to earn the Lake County a share of the points.

Louth - F Sheeky; H Osborne, D Corcoran, J Craven (0-1); A Williams (0-1), B Duffy, J Clutterbuck (1-2); T Durnin (0-1f), C Earley (0-1); C McKeever, A McDonnell, R Moore; R Burns (0-4f), S Mulroy (0-4), J McEneaney (0-1). Subs: R Conlon for R Burns, R Holcroft for C McKeever, T McEneaney for S Mulroy, D Byrne (0-2) for J McEneaney, D Marks for J Craven, C Downey for R Moore, F Donoghue for J Clutterbuck.

Wicklow - R Lambert; J Snell, R O'Brien, T Maher; D Fitzgerald, S Mooney, F O'Shea (0-1); D Healy, C McGraynor (0-1f); P O'Toole (0-1), A McLoughlin (0-1), R Finn (0-4, 3f); G Murphy (1-0), C O'Brien, P O'Connor. Subs: K Kirwan for J Snell, M Jackson for R Lambert, C Healy for D Fitzgerald, N Meldon for C O'Brien, J Snell for T Maher, R Davis (0-1) for G Murphy, C O'Shea for A McLoughlin, M Mangan for P O'Connor, M Fitzsimons for S Mooney, S Mooney for D Healy.

Referee - P Maguire.

**

Westmeath - E Carberry; N O'Reilly, R Wallace, K Daly; S Duncan, K Martin (0-2, 1f), D Lynch; S Flanagan, N Mulligan; A McGivney, C McCormack, P Fagan (0-4); J Maxwell (0-1), J Halligan, T McDaniel. Subs: G Egan (0-1f) for A McGivney, R O'Toole (0-3, 1f) for T McDaniel, G Leech for C McCormack, D Giles for J Maxwell, S Pettit for S Flanagan, B Sayeh for K Daly, N Cully for N Mulligan.

Offaly - B Rohan; D Hogan, D Dempsey, E Rigney; C Donohoe, P McConway, J O'Connor; C Mangan, A Leavy; N Bracken, A Sullivan (0-1), N Darby (0-1); B Allen (0-5, 3f), J Moloney, S Tierney (0-4f). Subs: M Abbott for N Bracken, C Horan for C Mangan, K Higgins for A Leavy, C Carroll for A Sullivan.

Referee - D Fedigan.

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