UNDER-21 FOOTBALL LEINSTER CHAMPIONSHIP Dublin 3-12 Louth 2-8: DEAN ROCK – son of Dublin legend, Barney – fired Dublin to a comfortable Under-21 Leinster Championship success over Louth in Drogheda yesterday.
A business-like second-half performance saw Jim Gavin’s side book a quarter-final date with Meath, as three goals at key intervals put paid to a gutsy Louth challenge.
Rock struck the first as early as the fourth minute, palming home a Gavin McIntyre centre from close range, but it was his second goal after just 30 seconds of the second period that opened the floodgates.
That said, the Dublin side didn’t have everything their own way in the first half as Eamonn McEneaney’s men bounced back from falling 1-3 to 0-1 behind after just 11 minutes.
A good second quarter saw the home side close the gap to a goal and Paraic Smith levelled proceedings for the first time when he latched onto a loose ball and drilled a fierce shot past Dublin goalkeeper Dominic McDonnell.
Perhaps unfortunate to be on level terms, Dublin responded with a fine long-range effort from David Quinn, but the game was still very much in the balance at half-time, with the score standing at 1-5 to 1-4.
However, that all changed within seconds of the restart, when substitute Luke Sweetman drilled a low ball into the danger area from the right channel, Rock made no mistake to put four between the sides, 2-5 to 1-4.
That settled the visitors into their stride and further points from Kelly, Rock and O’Connor left a visibly shocked Louth with a mammoth task.
A Smith free briefly stemmed the tide, but substitute Barry O’Rourke stretched Dublin’s lead once more with a neat finish following a good run in along the endline by O’Connor.
It got worse for Louth as their opponents refused to let up, and Dublin’s final score of the game from Paddy Andrews in the 53rd minute opened a 12-point lead.
A Smith free and a goal and a point from Maguire took some of the bad look off the scoreline from Louth’s point of view, but Dublin were already looking ahead to an encounter with Meath by that stage.
DUBLIN: D McDonnell; C Moore, S Byrne, G McIntyre; J Cooper, J Sheanon, C Guckian; C O'Sullivan, C Murphy; D Quinn (0-2), T Furman, P Andrews (0-1); Dean Kelly (0-2), D Rock (2-3), P O'Connor (0-3, all frees). Subs: L Sweetman for Furman (half-time), B O'Rourke (1-1)for McIntyre (36 mins), J McCarthy for Kelly (53 mins), M Devereux for Murphy (53 mins), N Brogan for Quinn (59 mins).
LOUTH: D Carney; B Connolly, P Nixon, J Clarke (0-1); P Rath, D Byrne, G Hoey; S McCann, S Brennan; N Conlon, P Smith (1-3, three frees), D Maguire (1-2); D Matthews (0-2), K Rogers, D Mulligan. Subs: G Moran for Brennan (40 mins), B Duffy for Rogers (43 mins), A McDonnell for Conlon (47 mins).
Referee: C Costello(Offaly).
Under-21 Quarter-finals
1 Wicklow v Laois
2 Kildare v Carlow
3 Dublin v Meath
4 Westmeath v Kilkenny
Semi-finals
1 v 23 v 4
