Louth defeat Limerick to claim Division 3 honours in Allianz Football League

Louth claimed the Allianz National League Division three title for the first time since 2011 after edging past a determined Limerick in Croke Park.

The tense decider swung in Mickey Harte's side's favour in the 54th minute when Liam Jackson found the net. Harte's outfit topped the table and their season changed in the corresponding fixture against Limerick back in February. The win that day in UL sparked a six-game winning streak for the newly-crowned league champions.

Physicality was felt right from the off as the first real action of the game began with a rugby tackle from Louth full-back Bevan Duffy on Cillian Fahy. Midfielder Fahy would have to go off minutes later but Limerick's top-scorer Josh Ryan duly added to his tally for the season.

In response, Sam Mulroy stroked over his fifth and sixth '45s of the year as the league’s top-scorer got the best possible start to the game.

Louth were running excellent lines and opened up a two-point lead through an excellent Daire Nally score.

Brian Donovan was a huge loss for Limerick but the Treaty men coped quite well without him in running off four points in a row. Louth on the other hand seemed to seize up after missing two goal chances.

Potent corner man Hugh Bourke really stood up in this dominant period for Billy Lee’s side in chalking over two well-taken scores along with Peter Nash in the other corner.

Louth lost their corner-forward Craig Lennon to injury and after 20 minutes without a score Mulroy ended their barren spell in front of the posts with a free.

Adrian Enright was excellent for Limerick and he clipped over his second point of the game before Mulroy once again found the range from a placed ball to make it 0-07 to 0-06 at half-time in Limerick’s favour.

Limerick