Ardee St. Mary's sweep Blessington aside to set up clash with champions Kilmacud Crokes

Ardee St. Mary's 3-09 Blessington 2-05

Ardee St. Mary's finished impressively to see off Wicklow champions Blessington in the Leinster Senior club championship quarter-final at a wet and windy Echelon Park Aughrim on Sunday afternoon.

A Dáire McConnon goal five minutes into the second half was a major blow to the hopes of the Blues who had taken a slender 2-04 to 2-03 lead into the half-time break which didn’t appear to be anywhere near enough given the Louth champions were turning around to play with the wind at their backs.

Cathal Murray’s men enjoyed a dream start as they sliced mercilessly through the Blessington rearguard for two classy Tom Jackson goals with major contributions from Conor Gillespie, Dáire McConnon and the superb Ciarán Keenan who was a thorn in Brian Cardiff’s side all day long.

Blessington showed all their class to bounce back from this nightmare start.

They had less than a week to recover from winning their county final, they lost full-back Conall Gallagher to injury after 15 and Jordan McGarr to a black after 25 but still took that one-point lead into the break courtesy of goals from Dan Cooney and Jack Gilligan.

More: Kilmacud Crokes prove too strong for Éire Óg

The sight of Anto McLoughlin coming off the bench gave the Blessington support plenty of cause of optimism but when a short kick-out went awry and Dáire McConnon finished home past Rob Gilligan the writing was on the wall.

Jonathan Commins added a point before Ciarán Keenan fired over two stunning scores to light up a dreary Echelon Park Aughrim and the third member of the Ardee St. Mary’s listed half-forward line, Liam Jackson, swept over another brace to leave the Louth men deserved winners by 3-9 to 2-5 and marching on to face Kilmacud