Longwood ........ 0-11 St Mochta's ...... 0-10 Meath's Longwood put one over their Louth hosts St Mocha's in a tense and thrilling AIB Leinster Club JFC final replay at Louth village on Sunday afternoon. Mark McDonagh's men made the most of the reprieve earned seven days earlier on their own patch to follow in the footsteps of Clann na nGael and Moynalvey to keep this provincial title in Meath for the third year running. Longwood also used numerical advantage to good effect in the latter stages following the dismissal of St Mochta's wing-back Gary Connolly on receipt of his second yellow card, midway through the second-half. From there to the end Longwood turned a 0-6 to 0-7 deficit into a memorable minimum margin success, by posting five scores from play. A brace of Declan Byrne pointed frees kept the home side in contention and after a goalmouth scramble full-back Phillip Englishby fly-kicked the ball over the bar to trim the arrears to the narrowest margin in the first of three minutes of stoppage time. In the final attack of the game, St Mochta's looked to have forced a '45' but referee Fergal Kelly deemed the alloted time had elapsed. Though referee Fergal Kelly adopted an unfussy approach, the Longford official saw fit to issue 13 yellow cards while St Mochta's Gervase Marron and Longwood Mickey Burke were also dismissed in separate incidents near the end. The number of cards issued were indicative of the intensity of the exchanges rather than any malicious intent on the part of the players. Apart from emerging as his side's top scorer, Rory Maguire had a hand in several of his side's late points and it was fitting that he raised Longwood's final flag that left it 0-11 to 0-9 with the hour just up. Scores were scarce in the early stages as points from wing-back Donal Gernon and Nigel Farrell (free) earned St Mochta's a 0-2 to 0-0 advantage with ten minutes gone. Another three minutes passed before John Cullinane opened the Longwood account. Though the visitors created more scoring opportunities, a more economial home side shaded the opening half. St Mochta's had a big let off when Rory Maguire (who netted from a similar effort in the drawn game) sent a 28th minute penalty kick wide. Moments later he started the move that saw Michael Weir level matters at 0-4 before Byrne's only score from play left the home side happier with a 0-5 to 0-4 interval advantage. The scores were tied on three further occasions before a fine Aaron Ennis effort put Longwood 0-9 to 0-8 in front in the 52nd minute and they managed to maintain that lead to the end. Longwood - J. Cully; C. Greene, E. Dixon, J. Colgan; B. Hanna, V. Byrne, J. Mahon; J. Cullinane (0-1), M. Burke; E. Lynch, M. Weir (0-2), K. Ennis (0-1); A. Ennis (0-2), W. Leonard, R. Maguire (0-5, 3 fs). Subs - C. Lynch for Mahon (46), G. Ennis for K. Ennis (60). St Mochta's - C. Ryan; B. Mulholland, P. Englishby (0-1), P. Marron; D. Gernon (0-1), C. Hoey (0-1), G. Connolly; D. Byrne (0-6, 5 frees), E. O'Neill; L. McGranaghan, S. Crawley, S. McMahon; K. Meegan, G. Marron, N. Farrell (0-1, free). Subs - B. Cassidy for P. Marron (39), G. O'Reilly for McGranaghan (48). Referee - F. Kelly (Longford). Tweet

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