The Dermot Earley Memorial Cup game between Roscommon and Louth played at the opening of the Strokestown GAA grounds on Sunday ended all square.

Roscommon 2-11
Louth 2-11

The home side earned a well deserved draw in the dying moments courtesy of Donie Shine. Despite been without a number of regulars for different reasons, both managers used the game to great effect with their championship campaigns coming up shortly.

Roscommon held the upperhand in the opening half as they went in five points to the good - 1-6 to 0-4. A goal seconds before the half time whistle sounded from Senan Kilbride pushed them clear. The St. Brigids club man proved to be a handful for the Louth full back line.

Louth did well to recover from a 0-4 to 0-1 deficit in the second quarter, Paddy Keenan and Derek Crilly reduced the Rossie lead to two points but the Kilbride goal gave them some breathing space.

The Wee County burst from the traps in the second half and a Keenan goal brought them back into contention after Ray Finnegan pointed.

Louth, who enjoyed a large majority of possession after the change of ends led for the first time when Finnegan notched a quick brace of points, however, Roscommon regained the advantage when Kilbride grabbed his second goal to leave them in front by two.

Approaching the end, there was to be another twist in the tail when Jim Mc Eneaney buried the ball to the Roscommon net. The scoreboard read 2-10 to 2-9 in favour of the visitors.

Keenan and Kilbride traded scores before Shine popped up deep into injury time to level it for a final time.

Roscommon - D O'Malley; S Mc Dermott, N Carty, S Purcell; C Dineen, P Domican, D Keenan; M Finneran, K Mannion; D O'Gara, C Cregg, J Rogers; C Devaney, D Shine (0-7), Seanan Kilbride (2-3). Subs: G Claffey, D Mc Dermott, G Heneghan, J Sharkey, D Rogers (0-1), M Higgins, D Ward, K Higgins, E Kenny, I Kilbride, N Collins, M Scally, B Murtagh, Colin Compton.

Louth - N Gallagher; P Rath, M Fanning, L Shevlin; R Finnegan (0-3), J Carr, D Byrne; P Keenan (1-3), J Califf (0-1); D Crilly (0-1), M Brennan, A Reid; A Mc Donnell, J Mc Eneaney (1-2), A Hoey. Subs: S Fitzpatrick (0-1), R Greene, D Mc Comish, D Finnegan, D Collier, J P Rooney, G Hoey, C Rafferty, D Reid, B Donnelly. Tweet

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