Leinster U20 football championship round-up: Meath join Louth in semi-finals with Longford win

Meath will join Louth in the last four of the Dalata Hotel Group Leinster U20 Football Championshio after seeing off Longford to top Group 2. Pic: ©INPHO.

Meath will join Louth in the last four of the Dalata Hotel Group Leinster U20 Football Championshio after seeing off Longford to top Group 2.

With holders Louth already through to the semi-finals after back-to-back wins in Group 1, all the intrigue was on who would join them.

Meath and Longford were both unbeaten in Group 2 so had the opportunity but the visiting Royals crushed Longford 3-15 to 0-12 in Clonguish.

A strong start from Cathal Ó Bric's side laid the platform for the dozen-point win with Colin Scanlon's 13th minute goal helping Meath into a 1-5 to 0-1 lead.

Full-forward Cian Commons added their second goal close to half time to leave the 2025 finalists 2-6 to 0-3 up at the interval.

Paul Hennessy registered a second half two-pointer and substitute Adam Ducie fired what is becoming a trademark goal late on to seal the big win.

All of Meath's forwards made the scoresheet as they backed up their previous wins over Carlow and Laois to take top spot in their group.

Kildare had already won the three-team Group 3, securing one of the quarter-final places so the race was on for the three other quarter-final spots.

Westmeath, Longford and Offaly all finished second in their groups to secure those spots, setting up the following quarter-final ties next Wednesday; Westmeath v Kildare and Longford v Offaly.

Westmeath pulled off an impressive 2-16 to 2-13 win over Dublin in Group 1 to secure their passage. Dublin, in turn, are out of the Leinster championship proper and will drop down to the Andrew Corden Cup competition.

Westmeath had freshly minted Hogan Cup medalists Criostóir Ormsby and Will Scahill in their team and both scored as they led 1-9 to 1-7 at half time.

James McHugh fired the Westmeath goal from a penalty and finished the opening period with 1-3, all from placed balls.

Dublin battled back in the third quarter and briefly led after points from Lenny Cahill and Callum O'Dwyer, 1-10 to 1-9.

But Westmeath finished strongly and a McHugh two-pointer gave them the impetus to push on.

Kealan Connell finished off a cracking team move for Westmeath's second goal in the 48th minute, leaving them six points clear.

Dublin got the margin back to two points late on but Westmeath sealed it with insurance points from Mikey Weir and Connell.

Offaly nailed five two-pointers in their 0-18 to 2-5 win over Wicklow, locking down second position in Group 3 for the Faithful and their quarter-final place.

Two first half two-pointers from Cian McNamee, who scored 0-6 overall, helped Offaly to lead by 0-11 to 1-1 at half time.

Jack Ryan turned the screw with back-to-back orange flag scores for Offaly after the restart. Jack O'Leary and Thomas Tisdall scored the goals for Wicklow.

Laois staged a remarkable comeback from seven points down at half time in Portlaoise to beat Carlow 3-17 to 2-17.

Darren Brennan and Ennae Byrne scored the second half goals for Laois who celebrated on the double as the game was also an Andrew Corden Cup quarter final.

Laois will join Dublin, Wexford and Wicklow in the last four of that competition.