Louth are through to the quarter-final stage of the Leinster MFC following a superb victory over Kildare. The Wee County U18s turned in an excellent display to defeat the Lilywhites by 1-12 to 0-13 at Dowdallshill on Saturday April 7. The visitors - wind assisted - settled best at St Brigid's Park and they had two scores on the board inside the opening minute. Louth gradually took control of midfield exchanges and centre forward Padraig Smith opened their account on nine minutes. Dundalk Gaels clubman Eanna McArdle joined the Dreadnots prodigy on the scoreboard a minute later as the Reds levelled. Derek Maguire won a penalty in the twelfth minute but he saw his shot well blocked by Kildare 'keeper Shane Connolly. The Young Irelands man struck a post with the rebounder. Injury-time points from Smith and Niall Conlon were sufficient to send the sides in level at the break, 0-6 apiece. Kildare made a rousing start to the second half and had another point to their credit before Ryan Leneghan stopped them in their tracks with a 36th-minute piledriver to the roof of the net. But the visitors added four unanswered points in the next ten minutes and Louth looked to be in trouble. Brian Duffy and Maguire levelled matters for the fourth time with eight minutes left and Maguire then exchanged points with Kildare's Seamus Hannifin. However, the winners totally dominated the last six minutes and points from Jason Clarke, Sean McCann and Maguire gave the Wee County their first provincial knockout victory at this level since 2003. Louth will face as-yet-unknown opposition at the Leinster quarter-final stage on Saturday May 12. In the meantime, they have further Ulster minor league engagements to concentrate on. Tweet

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