Kildare advance to U20 Leinster football last four

Kildare booked their place in the EirGrid Leinster U20 Football Championsip semi-final following a one point win over Louth in Louth COE, Darver on Tuesday evening.

It was a game that Kildare dominated the opening half with two excellent goals from Sam Savage and Oisin Grufferty to lead 2-4 to 0-2 at the break.

However on the change of ends, on a lovely evening for football, and despite raising the opening point of the second half, it was the home side that dominated for practically the entire half.

Indeed Louth cut the lead back to just two points on 55 minutes before the visitors got their second point of the half, a fine effort from Dara Crowley.

Louth did get the gap back to two again, missed a scoreable free before the same player, Kieran McArdle, left one between them. However much to the delight of Kildare players, management and fans, the long whistle arrived with Kildare taking the honours by a point: Kildare 2-6 Louth 0-11.

Kildare and Dublin now advance to the semi-final; the two quarter-finals will be played next Tuesday before an open draw for the semi-final, due to be played on Tuesday April 23, incidentally that open draw has a stipuilation that previous meetings not allowed, where possible.

Scorers: Kildare, Sam Savage 1-0, Oisin Grufferty 1-0, Colm Dalton 0-2, Dara Crowley 0-1, Killian Browne 0-1, Niall Dolan 0-1 (free), Ryan Sinkey 0-1 (free).

Louth, Kieran McArdle 0-4 (3 frees, 45), James Maguire 0-2 (1 free), James Rogers 0-1, Dara McDonnell 0-1, Aaron McGlew 0-1, Liam Flynn 0-1.

KILDARE: David McPartlin (Raheens); Rob Fitzgerald (Naas), Eoin Lawlor (Naas), Ethan Mountaine (Sarsfields); Oisin Grufferty (St Laurence's), James Harris (Castlemitchell), Colm Dalton (Sallins); Dara Crowley (Raheens), Fionn Cooke (Raheens); Killian Browne (Celbridge), Niall Dolan cpt (Raheens), Mark Gibbons (Kilcock); Ryan Sinkey (Naas), Ross Harris (Castlemitchell), Sam Savage (Rathangan). Subs: Ben Loakman (Sarsfields) for Ryan Sinkey (54 minutes); Mark Fitzsimons (Rathangan) for Sam Savage (53 minutes); Sean Mahon (Maynooth) for Oisin Grufferty (62 minutes).

LOUTH: Cian O'Donoghue; Keelan Martin, Cameron Maher, Fionn Tipping; Tadhg McDonnell, Cormac McKeown James Maguire; Sean Callaghan, James Rogers; Dara McDonnell, Kieran McArdle, Aaron McGlew; Liam Flynn, Sean Reynolds, Darragh Dorian. Subs: Pearce Grimes Murphy for Sean Callaghan (26 minutes); Adam Gillespie for Darragh Dorian (38 minutes); Ronan Derry for Fionn Tipping (38 minutes); Tadhg Kellett for Aaron McGlew (62 minutes).

REFEREE: Kieran Olwell.