Under-21s survive an early Wicklow scare

the white flag from a better angle.

Ross Nally replied immediately but Wicklow reeled off four points in a row to take a well-deserved lead.

O’Connor added his second following good play by Darragh Fitzgerald and both Wicklow midfielders got in on the scoring act either side of Gary Allen’s first free.

At the other end of the pitch Louth couldn’t find any fluency in their attack.

Gradually however the Wee County gained a foothold in the game and took over proceedings.

Senior star Ryan Burns showed the way with an excellent point from distance and moments later full-forward Sam Mulroy only needed a yard of space to swing over a point, making it 5-3 on the 16 minute mark.

The Wicklow defence was still making life difficult for the Louth attack but in the other sectors of the field Louth began to assert their dominance, particularly in midfield.

Louth took the lead in the 22nd minute with a quick-fire 1-1. Sam Mulroy did well to win and keep possession and Ciaran Downey drifted into space that was left empty just for him. He took Mulroy’s pass to kick his first point of the evening.

Louth won the kick out and this time Downey picked out Blues’ teammate Ross Nally with a pass.

The senior panellist didn’t need a second invitation and he quickly had the ball in the back of the net and to make it 1-4 to 0-5. Burns added a free from just inside the 45 on the stroke of half time and there was a goal between the teams.

Burns and Nally kicked a point each early in the second half to extend Louth’s lead to five but Wicklow came back with a couple of points again, Dunlavin duo Gary Allen and Eoin Murtagh with the honours, the latter a real barnstorming run from the centre back that raised a few voices in the stand.

The voices were quickly muted when Louth won the kick out and Downey had the ball over the bar. Sam Mulroy scored his second point and with a quarter of an hour to go Louth led by five.

Gary Allen and Cathal Grogan traded points before Patrick O’Connor was dragged down by Niall Sharkey as he bore down on goal. Sharkey received a black card for his troubles as Mikey O’Connor converted the free to leave four between the teams with ten minutes to play.

It set up a potentially exciting finish and while Wicklow had a late goal chance it went wide and Louth’s terrible trio of Burns, Downey and Nally kicked late points to seal a seven point victory for their team.