St Mary's Ardee outgun Abbeylara to make quarters

Ardee St Mary's (Louth) 3-14 Abbeylara (Longford) 2-08

Louth county champions Ardee St Mary's advanced to the quarter-final of the Leinster club SFC as they saw off Longford winners Abbeylara on Sunday afternoon.

The Mary's left plenty to spare at the finish, but it was far from vintage stuff from Cathal Murray's side, with the concession of two first-half goals leaving the sides level at the break.

Credit should go to Abbeylara however, as they made life difficult for the home side early, with players behind the ball, and double marking the dangerous St Marys’ forwards, including county star Ciaran Keenan.

The Longford champions also brought a strong cohort of supporters, who made themselves heard throughout proceedings.

The visitors, who are managed by former Roscommon star Frankie Dolan, opened the scoring after the first minute through a fine score from Jason Kelly, before Ciaran Scanlon converted a close-range free to give them a 0-02 to 0-00 lead after eight minutes.

The Mary's eventually opened their account through Shane Matthews from play.

Abbeylara’s scorer in chief Robert Smyth traded efforts with Ardee’s Carl Gillespie to leave the sides level at 0-03 each by the end of the first quarter.

Kian Moran put the Mary's ahead, before a fine move saw Liam Jackson dance his way through the Abbeylara defence to fire to the net to give the Mary's a 1-04 to 0-03 lead after 20 minutes.

However, Abbeylara soon responded to stun the home support when Cathal Gilligan parried a deflected Robert Smyth shot to the net seconds after Jackson’s major.

Kian Moran and Carl Gillespie (f) soon gave Ardee a three-point lead.

The Deesiders were guilty of conceding some cheap frees and some unforced errors in possession. They were punished just