Leinster Under-21 Football - Wicklow 3-13 Longford 0-10:LONGFORD WERE bounced out of the championship by Wicklow, who floored them with three sucker goal punches in their game at Arklow yesterday.

The game was barely a minute old when Longford committed the first cardinal error when their goalkeeper Enda Lyons spilled possession to Shane Carthy on the edge of the box and Carthy was left with an easy tap in to the empty net.

The second mistake came on 20 minutes after Longford had recovered from the first and traded points with their opponents.

This time Longford had won a free out of defence. The free was sloppily taken and possession given away to Wicklow’s full forward Peadar Burke who fed Anthony McLoughlin for the second goal.

Wicklow were now ahead by 2-4 to 0-3 and went on to hold that advantage to the break when they led by 2-7 to 0-6.

Wicklow have plenty of room for improvement on their performance but Seán Horan and Brian Osbourne in defence, Brendan McGarr and Adam Merriman at midfield, and inside forwards Shane Carthy and Dean Siney were impressive.

Dean Siney got the show on the road again within seconds of the restart with a point and it was game over after 40 minutes when centre forward Anthony McLoughlin nipped in between two Longford defenders to gain possession and set Shane Carthy up for his second, and Wicklow’s third, goal.

WICKLOW:L Trainor; C Murphy (0-1), S Mann, S Horan; C Foley (0-1), P McLoughlin, B Osbourne; A Merriman, B McGarr; R Carroll, A McLoughlin (1-0), P Cunningham (0-1); S Carthy (2-1), P Burke (0-1), D Siney (0-7, four frees). Subs:C Walsh (0-1) for C Foley, R Lambert for R Carroll, S Dillon for S Carthy.

LONGFORD:G McNerney; S Flynn, K Diffley, R Barrins; C Smyth, D Faughnan, F Battrim; J Keegan, M Brady; S Powell, J Sheridan, B Farrell (0-2, one free); W Crawford (0-1), R McGoldrick (0-5, four frees), P Gill (0-1). Subs:D McGoldrick for P Gill, P McKeon (0-1) for S Flynn, M Morrissey for J Keegan, F Beirne for B Farrell.

Referee:Brendan Hickey (Kildare).