Louth 1-11 Armagh 2-8
The Armagh u20s earned a draw away to Louth on Saturday afternoon in the second round of their league campaign.
Armagh got off to a flying start last weekend when two Aaron O’Neill goals saw them defeat Monaghan 2-11 to 1-9.
This weekend, it was his Crossmaglen clubmate Caolan Finnegan who netted twice in the first half.
O’Neill opened the scoring with a free which was matched by the home side a couple of minutes later.
Finnegan then buried the first goal of the game, reacting to a shot that had dropped short and squeezing it into the net.
Finnegan pounced on a mishit kickout and punished the keeper with his second goal in sixty seconds.
Louth could have raised a green flag of their own but for a fine save from Patrick McAteer, although they did reply with a point.
Antoin McParland fired over a brilliant, outside of the boot point, to put Armagh six points clear.
But the Wee County soon halved that tally with three points on the trot. Odhran Carragher claimed the final score of the half, with Armagh ahead 2-3 to 0-5.
The sides traded scores after the turnaround, with Ruairi O’Brien palming over from close range.
With the breeze at their backs, Louth mounted a comeback, kickstarted by two points in a row.
O’Neill briefly halted their scoring spree with a free, but the hosts rattled off 1-1 to go two-points ahead.
But the Armagh youngsters showed great character and chipped in with three of the game’s final four points.
Finnegan cut the deficit to one while wing half back Fergal O’Brien split the posts to level the game.
Louth pointed and looked to have sealed the victory, but O’Brien got forward for his second point and to earn his team a share of the spoils.
Armagh sit top of their group, following Monaghan’s win over Westmeath and will face Westmeath in the final round in two weeks’ time.
