Leinster Junior Football Championship Final: Meath 0-19, Louth 0-10

Meath once again got the upper hand on their neighbours Louth, this time in the Leinster Junior Football Championship final at Croke Park.

It was a straightforward victory for the Royal County, in a game they dominated for almost all the 60 minutes.

Louth actually opened the scoring through William Woods, but Meath quickly took control and by the 20^th minute were ahead by eight points to one.

Meath’s full forward line of James Conlon, Daire Rowe and Kevin Ross all contributed during this purple patch, as did wing forward Paddy Kennelly and wing back David Toner.

It went from bad to worse for Louth in the 25^th minute when their centre back and captain David Quigley was sent off by the referee, Fergal Barry.

And Meath capitalised with four more points before the break, coming from Rowe (2), Kennelly and Conlon – their 14^th score arriving after a Kevin Traynor shot came back into play off the butt of the post.

Behind by 0-14 to 0-3 at the interval, Louth unsurprisingly failed to make any inroads in the second half. The contest lacked a competitive edge as Meath brought their final tally up to 19 points. To their credit, Louth kept battling and hit over some nice scores from Daniel O’Connell, William Woods and Aaron O’Brien, but those efforts couldn’t disguise the gap in standard between the two sides.

Meath Scorers: Daire Rowe (2f) 0-5; James Conlon 0-4; Kevin Ross (1f), Paddy Kennelly 0-3 each; David Toner, Michael Flood, Neil Shorthall, Ben Brennan (f) 0- 1each.

Louth Scorers: William Woods (3f) 0-5; Daniel O’Connell, Aaron O’Brien 0-2 each; Colm Giggins 0-1.

MEATH: Johnny Lynch; Adam Lynch, Luke Moran, Niall McCabe; David Toner, Joe Sweeney, Kevin Traynor; Adam Flanagan, Conor Farrell; Paddy Kennelly, Ben Brennan, Cathal McConnell; James Conlon, Daire Rowe, Kevin Ross.

Subs: Stephen Coogan for Conlon; Neil Shorthall for McConnell; Declan Smyth for Traynor; Willie Carry for Brennan; Jamie Reilly for Lynch; Ciaran O’Rourke for Traynor.

LOUTH: Robert Sampson; Barry Reynolds, Kieran Lenaghan, Cillian Kirk; Niall Sharkey, David Quigley, Mícheál McDonald; Robert Brodigan, Daniel O’Connell; Ciaran Sheridan, Dean Maguire, Colm Giggins; Cian Callan, Conal O’Hanlon, William Woods.

Subs: Mark Hoey for Reynolds; Conor Earley for Maguire; Hugh Osborne for Lenaghan; Aaron O’Brien for Callan; Peter Nixon for Giggins; Cillian Kirk for Brodigan (temp); Brodigan for Kirk (temp); Kirk for McCabe.

Referee: Fergal Barry (Longford).