A very talented Louth side collected their second brace of points with this comfortable win over Westmeath in the third round of the Gerry Reilly Cup at a wet and windy Millbrook, Oldcastle. The winners set up a 'Plate Final' date with Meath next weekend.
Before the game there was a minutes silence for the late Sean O'Reilly, brother of Eddie, PRO for the Gerry Reilly Cup tournament.
Louth 4-16 Westmeath 1-7
Louth played into the wind for the first half and dominated proceedings. Five unanswered points Shane Byrne (3) and Ferghal Malone (2) set them on the road to victory inside the opening ten minutes. Owen Kelly kept Westmeath in the game with two fine scores midway through the half but the winners dominated the closing ten minutes. Two well worked goals finished by corner forward Joe Quinn gave the 'Wee County' boys a 2-13 to 0-3 half time lead.
Louth made sure of victory inside the opening seven minutes of the second half. Quick fire goals from Conor Loughran and Quinn opened up a 4-13 to 0-4 gap. Westmeath enjoyed a better share of possession for the last 15 minutes and were rewarded with Shane Boyce goal and fine points from Fola Ayorinde and Ciaran Nolan.
Louth's John Gallagher was presented with the Man of the Match award after the game.
Louth: Luke Mitchell, Shawni Dowdall, Martin Hynes, Mark Whelan, Nicholas Browne 0-1, Lorcan Dixon, Jack Murphy, Fearghal Malone 0-3, Eoghan Callaghan 0-1, Shane Byrne, Philip Kirwan 0-1, John Gallagher 0-5, Cian Brady, Conor Loughran 1-4, Joe Quinn 3-0. Subs: Conor Gillespie, James O'Reilly, Leonard Gray 0-1, Ben Mooney, Philip Trainor, Conor Hoey.
Westmeath: Sean Donegan, Cathal Beirne, Darragh Monaghan, Aiden Robinson, Cathal Bane, Lee Kelly, Enda Cully, Aiden Lynch, Tommy Lennon, Ben Cox 0-1, Shane Boyle 1-1, James Bracken, Owen Kelly 0-2, Cillian Fox, Kevin Stone. Subs: Fola Ayorinde 0-2, Jordan Nugent, Dylan Rushe, Ciaran Nolan 0-1.
Referee Martin Griffin Meath
Louth's John Gallagher recieves the Man of the Match award from Sean Maxwell Oldcastle GAA
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