Electric Ireland Leinster MFC preliminary quarter-final results

LOUTH 0-12 WICKLOW 0-10

WEXFORD 6-10 LAOIS 0-9

Louth and Wexford followed very different paths to victory in their Electric Ireland Leinster Minor Football Championship preliminary quarter-final clashes with Wicklow and Laois tonight, as Louth showed immense grit and patience to see off a resilient Wicklow side at Echelon Park in Aughrim, while Wexford found a rich vein of scoring form at Chadwicks Wexford Park and hit the O'Moore County for six goals to set up a clash with Meath on Tuesday week in the quarter-final stages.

Louth will now take on Offaly in the other quarter-final, while round-robin group stage winners Dublin and Kildare are straight through to the last four.

There was no doubting which player took centre stage in Wexford Park, as Rory Gilbert played a central role in the home side’s attacking tour de force, scoring 3-3 and playing a key role in setting up a host of scores for his colleagues, including two of the other three goals.

The manner in which the first goal was struck proved crucial too, as Laois looked sharp early on, kicking the first score of the game through team captain Eoin Johnson. They enjoyed plenty of possession too, but Wexford’s speed in transition was a feature of the tie.

After they almost punished Laois with one early goal, only for Gilbert to shoot high and wide, Liam Conroy saved his second after nine minutes, only for the St. Mary’s attacker to punch the rebound to the net.

Three minutes later he added a second with an accurate finish, and the points soon began to flow. Darren Rossiter found the target, Gilbert added a mark and blasted another goal chance over the bar, and two from Harry Murphy made it 2-6 to 0-4 at half-time.

Within two minutes of the restart, Gilbert rose highest to meet a high ball from Murphy and fist it into the net, and Laois soon lost full back Danny McGrath to a black card and were in real trouble. A fourth goal followed through a powerful Tom Funge drive, and it was already clear which side was heading for the next round of competition.

Shane Reddy and Darren Rossiter added points before Cathal Kehoe crowned a lengthy solo run with Wexford's fifth goal after 49 minutes, leaving St. Mary’s Enniscorthy student Colin Ivers to raise the last green flag of the night.

It was a very different type of game at Aughrim where Louth built up an 0-5 to 0-1 lead after 20 minutes, with team captain Adam Gillespie on the mark with three of their five points, and from then on Wicklow were a good match for the Wee County from general play, but couldn’t quite find a way to get their noses in front at any stage.

Oisín Murphy and Darragh Shanahan were hugely impressive for Wicklow at midfield and they were the platform on which the home side built their comeback.

They were back to within two at half time, a pair of scores from Paddy Small and Eddie Cullen levelled the tie at 0-7 apiece, and while Louth centre forward Dylan Shevlin fired over an inspirational point that broke Wicklow’s momentum, Joe Heatly balanced the teams up once more.

With the game on the line, Louth found one last surge and points from Padraic Tinnelly, Tony McDonnell and Gillespie’s fifth of the night put three points between the sides, and that was enough of a cushion to see them through.