Louth get Leinster U20 defence off to perfect start

Louth's Shane Lennon is tackled by Kealan Connell of Westmeath. Pic: Grace Halton/Inpho

Louth got their defence of the Leinster U20 football championship off to the perfect start with a convincing 3-13 to 2-5 victory over Westmeath in Mullingar on Friday night. 

St Mochta's club man Shane Lennon - part of a potent Louth forward unit - top-scored for the Wee County with 2-1, while Pearse Grimes Murphy and Adam Gillespie scored 1-1 and 0-4, respectively. 

Louth started brightly, and by half-time, they had raced into a 2-5 to 0-2 lead and never looked back from there, putting up a big score against a hapless Westmeath.

Wing-back Tadhg Devaney finished strongly, adding to an original point with two more fantastic efforts to get his side to that 3-13 tally.

Meanwhile, despite a late fightback from Galway at Dr Hyde Park, Roscommon prevailed in round 2 of the Connacht Minor football championship on Friday to record their second win of the campaign.

Superior for the best part of an hour, The Rossies made use of the strong breeze in the first half and put together an 8-point scoring streak to take a commanding lead. T

wo points from Ryan Connolly either side of this streak kept Galway afloat and six behind at the interval (0-8 to 0-2). 

Points from Bobby Lenehan, Cathal Nerney and Joshua Coyne extended Roscommon's lead early in the second half despite playing against the breeze that aided them in the first period.

Two well-taken frees from Galway's Adam Healy gave his side hope coming down the stretch. 

Then as injury time approached Damien Mitchell was quickest to a rebound and slotted home for Galway to give them a fighting chance with little left on the clock.

Captain Oisin Ó Neachtain's two-pointer had The Rossies sweating even more but they held on. Elsewhere, Mayo toppled Leitrim at Páirc Seán MacDiarmada, making it two losses on the bounce for the Wild Rose County.

Leitrim didn't go down without a fight though. The recovered from being down by 11 points after quarter of an hour (1-8 to 0-0), chipping away at Mayo and bringing it back to a four point game midway through the second half, but Mayo stood strong and took the spoils.