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Leinster U-20 Football Championship Wrap

Friday, 15 April 2022 at 12:13

Victory for Offaly but defeat for Laois and Westmeath.

Offaly will play Kildare in the semi-finals of the Leinster U20 Football Championship. 

It follows a convincing win over Carlow in Kilcormac last night. 

Keith O'Neill, John Furlong, Darragh Flynn and Eoin Murphy with the goals in a facile contest. Offaly will have learned little from this in truth, but it was a step up on intensity from the performance against Louth a week ago.

Kildare will provide another step forward in terms of calibre of opposition, but the defending champions will be favourites to progress once more. 

The game has been fixed for O'Connor Park next Thursday evening at 6:30pm. 

The lilywhites reached the final four after a tremendous battle with Laois last night. 

It looked ominous when Kildare raced out to a six-point advantage early doors but the O'Moore county gradually worked their way into the game and only trailed by four at half-time following goals from Paddy Hosey and Davin McEvoy. 

Eddie Kinsella's side played with the aid of a breeze in the second period, but were unable to make it count for long stretches. 

Sean Fitzpatrick found the net for a third-time and Laois narrowed the gap to two going into injury time. There was no late drama however and Laois fall at the first hurdle for the second year in succession at this grade. 

Westmeath had the stiffest task of the evening on paper and produced a battling display in their defeat to last season's Leinster finalists, Dublin. 

The lake county showed up well, particularly in the first half and Dublin couldn't handle the direct style of play. 

Senan Baker and Ben McGauran were on fire and combined for seven points in the opening 20-minutes. Peter Pierson tagged on a goal in first-half injury time and Damien Gavin's men led by seven points, 1-9 to 0-5 at the break. 

The flow of the contest dramatically reversed in the second half. 

Dublin turned to their bench and the changes had the desired effect. They outscored Westmeath 1-10 to 0-1 in the second period. A Ben McGauran point was the only piece of work for the umpire in the maroon end. 

While plenty of individual players look to have a future at senior level and in the long run, this will look like a good crop of U20s, there's also a sense that they should have achieved more together given their scoring prowess up front. 

Results:

  • Offaly 4-13 - 0-6 Carlow
  • Kildare 2-16 - 3-11 Laois
  • Dublin 1-15 - 1-10 Westmeath 

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