Louth finished the strongest to win the Shield Final

Louth 0-21 Wicklow 3-8

A cracking game of football saw Louth scoring the last 4 scores as time expired to hold off Wicklow in the Gerry Reilly U-16 FT Shield final played this afternoon Sat, 29 July 2017) in Millbrook, Oldcastle. Conditions were not good, both with strong gusty winds and very heavy showers all day, but despite that we were treated to an exciting and very competitive game of football.
Wicklow had the wind behind them in the first half and opened the scoring with a coverted free by Eoin Darcy. They could have added to that , but a poor shot was made into the goalie’s hand’s. However they soon made up for that after Eoin Darcy was pulled down in the square,and Alan Barrett made no mistake from the penalty spot.Gabriel Bell got Louth off the mark with a point Wicklow had more chances, but were off target on 2 occasions before Eoin Darcy converted a free in the 14th minute to lead 1-2 to 0-1. Jonathan got a point 2 minutes later to narrow the gapbeteen the sides. Wicklow had 2 more points efore Louth scored 3 points on the trot by the 26th minute. Points were exchanged just before the break by Ruairi Tompkins and Jonathan Commins(f)
H/T: Wicklow 1-5 Louth 0-6
At times the gusty wind seemed stronger in the second half. Louth got the opening score, but then Eoin Darcy finished off a great move from Gavin Fogarty to get Wicklow’s second goal. Wicklow led by 2-6 to to 0-7 by the 39th minute. Points were exchanged again before Louth seemed to be getting control of the game with some terrific scores including Ryan Walsh (2f) and Padraig Duffy (2) to have the sides level at 0-13 to 2-7. Louth continued to dominate and added 4 unanswerd points to seemingly have a commanding lead. However Alan Barrett’s goal had Wicklow right back in it ad they followed up with an Eoin Darcy point from a free to have the sides level. But Louth responded with 4 unanswered points as tme was expiring. Wicklow did have a goal attempt in the the 64th minute that could have tied things up, but Louth’s Ryan Walsh made surethat there was going to be no way back for Wicklow with a point from a free.

Louth’s, Cathal Fleming, was presented with the RESPA ‘Man of the match’ award by Darren Kellett (Kelletts Oldcastle Ltd)

Overall Louth deserved their victory in a most entertaining game, though they know they had a real fight on their hands from Wicklow.

After the game, Louth’s Captain, Joe Mee, was presented with the Gerry Reilly U-16 FT Shield Trophy by Darren Kellett (Kelletts Oldcastle Ltd)

Louth: Cian Rogan Cooley, Caolán McCabe, Finbarr Lynch, Jamie Winters, Aaron McDonnell, Rúairí Hanlon, James Harper, James McGillick, Joe Mee (0-2)Capt), Conor Faulkner, Gabriel Bell (0-2), Cathal Fleming (0-4), Patrick Johnston, Ryan Walsh (0-3,3f), Jonathan Commins (0-8,4f)
Subs: Nathan Buckley for McDonnell, Conor Quigley for McGillick, Seán Healy(0-2) for Faulkner, Eoghan Ryan for Johnston, Darragh McCoy for McCabe, Jay Crawley for Winters

Wicklow: Kian Geraghty, Cian McHugh, Daire Devine, Jason Steed, Johnny Keogh, Fionn O’Carroll, Gavin Fogarty, Cian Walsh, Sean Doody, Alan Barrett (2-0), Shaun Cranley (0-1), Oisin Cullen, Sean Mason, Eoin Darcy (1-4), Ruairi Tompkins (0-3)
Subs: Niall Gaffney for Geraghty, Eoin Murphy for Mason, Ben Fennell for Steed, Craig Lennon for Doody, Gerard White for Fogarty

Ref: Colm McManus (Meath)