Gerry Reilly Rd3 report

Louth 7.13 Westmeath 5.8

Louth went into this game knowing that a victory against Westmeath would secure second place in their Gerry Reilly Cup group behind Dublin and qualify them for Gerry Reilly Final in two weeks time.

Westmeath blitzed Louth early on and after five minutes Westmeath led 1.2 to 0.1 with Conor Whelan getting on the score sheet for Louth. This seem to wake Louth up and Louth replied with 2goals and five points without reply after 22 minutes. The first goal was a fine individual goal from St Mochtas player Stephen Mc Cooey. His pace and power caused the Westmeath outfit all sorts of problems. The second Louth goal was a bullet of a shot from midfielder Evan Keenan. Points followed from Mc Cooey (2) Whelan (2) and Sean Marry.

The next ten minutes was all Louth and Mc Cooey once more finished neatly to the net and points from the impressive Whelan and midfielder Dion Conlon, Emmet Hughes and wingback Danny O Brien.

At the short whistle Louth led 3.10 to 1.2. Louth seem to slack off early in second half and let Westmeath in for a couple of slack goals. Louth never looked under pressure and pushed on in the second half with further goals from Whelan and Keenan. After 45 minutes Mc Cooey completed his impressive hattrick with a brave collision with the Westmeath goalie. Two minutes after this he added another to bring his total for the game to 4 goals and 2 points. Himself and Conor Whelan playing in a two man Full Forward line finished with a combined total of 5.7.

Louth pushed on and completed a comfortable victory but would like to tighten up in defence but will go into the Final in good shape after using 36 players in the three group games and places in the starting line up will be very precious.

After the game St Mary’s clubman Evan Keenan was named Man of the Match, a very we’ll deserved award for this energetic and industrious midfielder.

Louth Team . Sean Hayes, Jonathon Culleton, Eoin Mc Daid, David Cluskey, Aaron Khan, Brendan Matthews, Danny O Brien(0-1), Dion Conlon (0-1), Evan Keenan(2.1) , Sean Marry (0-1), Emmet Hughes (0-1), Cian Duffy, Killian Kampes, Stephen Mc Cooey (4-2),Conor Whelan (1-5)Subs Used: Alex Woods, Cathal Grogan, Ciaran Carter, Cian Commins, Chris Sweeney, Cian Callan(0-1)