A late surge of scoring for the second game running proved decisive for Louth as they cruised through to a mouth-watering Leinster SFC quarter-final clash with old rivals Meath.

Louth 3-12 Antrim 1-14: Louth manager Colin Kelly admitted he wasn’t surprised that the big man with the big reputation delivered for the Wee County in spectacular fashion.

Powerful full-forward Conor Grimes struck a decisive 71st minute goal at Croke Park as Louth came from behind to secure a dramatic Allianz football league Division 4 title success.

Presentation, Thurles 1 Presentation, Kilkenny 0: Sarah McKevitt’s first-half strike secured the Bank of Ireland FAI Schools Senior Girls National Cup for Presentation Thurles in the Carriganore sunshine yesterday.

Barely had the tears dried and the emotions been choked back from Wednesday’s farewell to St Andrews by Arnold Palmer when it felt like you needed to start them all over again in Thursday’s opening round of the 144th Open Championship.

Louth 1-16 Leitrim 0-11: They may not be All-Ireland contenders any time soon but Louth continue to show an uncanny knack for churning out talented young forwards.

Louth 2-11 Limerick 2-13: Ian Ryan marked his first start in over a year with eight priceless points, as Limerick completed their great escape in Drogheda.

Kildare 2-15 Meath 0-13: This game hinged on a two-minute period straight after the break, when Kildare found the net almost immediately after Meath had had a gilt-edged opportunity to blow this Eirgrid Leinster U21FC semi-final wide open.

Sligo 2-26, Louth 2-9 Sligo kick-started their faltering Division 3 campaign with a sparkling defeat of Louth at Markievicz Park, their first win in four league outings.

Kildare 3-12 Offaly 0-9

Allianz FL Division 3 Round 2: Louth 1-16 Clare 0-13: Yesterday’s surprise but thoroughly deserved Division Three win over Clare at Drogheda was Louth’s first in the league in two years.

Fermanagh 0-16 Louth 0-7: Allianz Football League Division 3: Fermanagh began their Division Three campaign with a resounding home victory over Louth on Saturday night.

Carlow 3-08 Louth 1-12: Carlow’s footballers provided new boss Turlough O’Brien with a first win thanks to this merited two-points victory over Louth in yesterday’s O’Byrne Cup tie at Dr Cullen Park.

UCD 2-08 Louth 0-12: A goal with the last touch of the game earned UCD the points in last night’s O’Byrne Cup tie at Haggardstown, and so keeps the students in with a chance of a place in the knockout stages.

O’Byrne Cup

Graeme McDowell will get Ireland’s challenge at the 2014 Masters up and running tomorrow at Augusta National when he tees off in the opening round of the year’s first major championship at 2.35pm Irish time.

Derry 0-12 Cavan 3-10

Kilmessan 2-16 Longwood 0-11

Old Leighlin 0-11 Éire Óg 1-06

Donegal 2-11 Derry 0-15

Dublin 4-15 Louth 0-10

Bryan Sheehan, Anthony Maher and Aidan O’Mahony make their first starts of the year for Kerry in tomorrow’s McGrath Cup semi-final against Limerick at Fitzgerald Stadium.

Westmeath 1-15 Louth 0-12

Monaghan turned on the style in the second half to book their place in the Ulster MFC semi-finals.

Winning the Division 2 league title may have been perceived outside of the camp as being important to Kildare’s continuing development but it was never viewed as such by the players or management.

The time-honoured tradition of lumping it into the full-forward line was all Cavan needed here at Brewster Park to reach their third Ulster U21 final in-a-row.

Leinster chairman Martin Skelly was moved to describe Dublin as potential All-Ireland champions after this convincing U21 Leinster final display in Páirc Tailteann.

Dublin 1-16 Louth 0-8

This game was effectively over after 10 minutes, by which stage the Oak Leafers were 1-4 to nil ahead and in total control in all sectors.

Although only scoring once in the last 23 minutes, Louth held out to bridge a 16-year gap when advancing to the Leinster U21FC final at the expense of a fancied Offaly side at Navan’s Páirc Tailteann last night.

Carrigaline were always in control, easily beating Valley Rovers to claim a second successive South East U21 FC title at Kinsale yesterday, their third divisional win in five years.

Louth put up a spirited display to beat Longford in last night’s Leinster U21FC quarter-final at Haggardstown.

MILLTOWN-Castlemaine held off the determined Craigbane challenge and secured a Croke Park date in three weeks’ time.

SPARKLING Kevin O’Grady inspired Wexford to a well deserved four point victory over Louth in this Leinster U-21 FC opener at Enniscorthy last night.

CORK attacker Niall McCarthy is set to make his comeback from injury in Sunday’s senior hurling challenge against Galway. The match, which is a repeat of the recent NHL Division 1 final between the counties, takes place in Castlelyons at 5pm.

PHILIPPE Saint-Andre has challenged English champions Sale Sharks to “kick-start” their Heineken Cup campaign tonight by collecting a maximum points haul against minnows Calvisano.

OF all the overseas signings that Ulster have made in recent seasons, Wallaby Justin Harrison jumps out as the one to have made the biggest impact.

MUNSTER heroes captain Anthony Foley, half backs Ronan O’Gara and Peter Stringer and second-row partners Paul O’Connell and Donncha O’Callaghan will be at Thomond Park on Saturday, but not on the pitch, as the Heineken Cup champions take on Cardiff Blues (5.30pm).

BALLYMENA’S Bryan Young could not ask for a tougher Heineken Cup baptism when he lines out opposite former Springbok strongman Cobus Visagie as Ulster take on Group Four leaders Saracens at Ravenhill tonight (7.30 pm).

ULSTER have named an unchanged lineup for Friday’s opening Heineken Cup back-to-back games with Saracens at Ravenhill.