Louth Schools safely through to last eight
Louth Schools Wicklow Schools 1-15 2-10
LOUTH Schools secured their passage to the quarter-final stage of the Leinster Schools Senior ‘A’ football championship with a twopoint victory over Wicklow Schools after a very entertaining battle in Roundwood last Wednesday afternoon.
Played in one of the highest villages in Ireland, this game provided plenty of drama, some superb scores and probably the fairest result given that the Louth Schools side looked to be the more accomplished outfit in terms of overall footballing ability.
However, the Wee County side should also consider themselves quite lucky to have headed home with victory in the bag considering it was only a fine save from Alan McCauley and the width of the crossbar that denied Wicklow Schools full-forward Oisin McGraynor a four-goal tally late on when he unleashed two rockets of shots at McCauley’s goal.
McGraynor was the chief tormentor for the Louth Schools side. He almost single-handedly dragged Wicklow Schools into the game in the opening half, bagging 1-04 of the 1-07 total, three from frees.
Louth Schools, a combination of Ardee CS, Bush PP, and Dunleer CS, notched seven points from their opening 30 minutes, with Ciarán Keenan looking the sharpest of the bunch, especially when he was switched inside with Conor Gillespie moving out.
The visitors started brightly while playing into a low sun and against the wind. Points from Dylan Maher and Shane Matthews got them up and running and for a time Wicklow Schools were having trouble getting their hands on the ball.
Good work from Jack Dunne allowed Mark Barrett the space to fire over off his left to get the home side up and running and a lovely burst up the middle from the very impressive Matthew Traynor levelled the game at 0-02 to 0-02 after nine minutes.
Conor Gillespie returned Louth Schools to the front with a fine effort and then Wicklow Schools hit a serious purple patch over a six-minute period where they harvested a very healthy 1-04.
There were 14 minutes on the clock when the superb Mark Reid drove up the field from centre-half back and laid off to Oisin McGraynor. The lofty full-forward still had plenty of work to do but he powered down on McCauley’s goal and screwed home a lovely low strike off his left to the bottom corner.
A missed free from McGraynor was followed by a point from Matthew Traynor and then the Louth Schools defence were found guilty of a number of fouls which Oisin McGraynor punished ruthlessly with another three white flags raised to make it 1-06 to 0-03 with 21 gone.
Tristan Knowles stopped the rot for Louth Schools and then Ciarán Keenan started to cause trouble inside and he added two sweet scores before a McGraynor beauty and another Knowles effort completed the first half scoring at 1-07 to 0-07 in favour of the home team.
The opening three minutes of the second half were frantic with the action flowing up and down the field with both sides making basic errors at the business end of the field.
Louth Schools received a massive boost on four minutes when they raised their only green flag of the day. The move started when Shane Matthews found Conor Gillespie from midfield. Gillespie picked out Ciarán Keenan who cleverly held up play while Gillespie maneuvered himself into a forward position with no Wicklow Schools player following him. Keenan played a dinky ball over the top and Gillespie walloped home past William Rodgers for the visitors’ only goal of the game.
A Tristan Knowles point pushed Louth Schools ahead, but Oisin McGraynor launched a rocket past McCauley moments later to return the home side to the front in a game that was starting to really warm up in the bright winter sunshine of Roundwood.
Key to the Louth Schools victory was the vital last 20 minutes of this game where they outscored their Garden County opponents by 0-06 to 0-03. At times Wicklow made frustrating errors and they also allowed Alan McCauley pick out his defenders with the kick-out without any real challenge or pressure.
Gillespie, Dylan Maher with his second, and a pure class point from Shane Matthews returned Louth Schools to the lead after 15 minutes at 1-11 to 2-07. Wicklow dispensed with their defensive formation and went 15 on 15 and McGraynor swept over a 45 to level the game yet again.
McGraynor then volleyed a nifty through ball towards the Louth Schools net but McCauley was excellent and got down low to block. The visitors attacked at the other end but found James Tyrrell, Senan Molloy and Andrew Maher in fine form.
But the Louth Schools attackers seemed that little bit more capable of knocking over the scores. Gillespie, Knowles, Keenan and Shane Matthews added four more scores with points from substitutes Ross Ward and Ronan Murray sandwiched in between for the home side along with McGraynor’s rocket that thumped back out off the crossbar.
The 1-15 to 2-10 victory shows how close this battle was. It doesn’t tell the reader how entertaining this game was, however. And entertaining it most surely was. Both sides voiced some frustration at some refereeing decisions but the officiating couldn’t be blamed for the defeat for the home side or credited for the victory for the visitors.
Louth Schools’ sharper attack and Wicklow Schools’ own errors and missed chances were the key differences on the day.
LOUTH SCHOOLS: Alan McCauley; Cormac Rafferty, Donal McKinney, Adam Hanratty; Dylan Maher 0-2, Neil Kerr, Cathal Fleming; Pearce Hawkins, Stef 0-4an Breen; Shane Matthews 0-3, Ciarán Keenan 0-3, Trevor Matthews; Tristan Knowles, Conor Gillespie 1-3, Jonathan Commins. Subs: Shane Meade for S Breen (36).
WICKLOW SCHOOLS: William Rodgers; James Tyrrell, Senan Molloy, Andrew Maher; James Hedderman, Mark Reid, Patrick O’Kane; Mark Barrett 0-1, Ciaran Coffey; Matthew Traynor 0-2, Jack Healy, Tadhg O’Toole; Eoin Darcy, Oisin McGraynor 2-5 (3f, 1’45’), Jack Dunne. Subs: Conor Odlum for C Coffey (37); Ross Ward 0-1 for J Hedderman (43); Ronan Murray 0-1 for T O’Toole (54).
REFEREE: Pat Moran (Laois)