Westmeath proved too strong for Longford in the Electric Ireland Minor Football Championship this evening.
Electric Ireland Leinster minor football championship, Round 2
Group 1
Dublin 1-9 Laois 1-7
Louth 2-26 Offaly 2-17
Group 2
Kildare 3-14 Meath 1-15
Westmeath 3-15 Longford 2-9
Group 3
Carlow 3-12 Wicklow 2-9
By Paul Keane
Mubarak Salami showed his quality for the second week running in the Electric Ireland Leinster MFC, drilling the decisive goal for Dublin at Parnell Park.
Fresh off scoring two of Dublin's five goals in the Round 1 win over Offaly, St Maurs attacker Salami struck the killer goal this time and 1-2 in total.
There were important cameos too from Jamie Heavey and Ciaran Clifford who struck a brace of points each in a low-scoring Round 2 encounter.
The Sky Blues' win, allied to Louth's nine-point defeat of Offaly elsewhere, has left Dublin and Louth tied at the top of Group 1 on four points each - with the two sides set to meet next week in the final round.
That should be a cracking encounter because the winner will advance to the semi-finals of the provincial championship as table toppers. The loser will go through to a quarter-final.
Dublin led Laois by 0-5 to 0-4 at half-time though fell behind early in the second-half when Ultan Dunne, the midlanders' leading scorer with 1-2, palmed in a goal.
Dublin's response was impressive with points from Clifford and Salami to regain the lead - and they held onto it all the way to full-time.
They were always looking over their shoulders though and Laois twice reduced the gap to a single point following scores from Sean Rowan and Dunne.
Salami eventually gave Dublin some breathing space with a stoppage time point from a free to secure the two-point win.
Connell Kelly was to the fore again for Louth in their impressive win over Offaly, netting in the opening quarter as the Wee County surged 10 points clear initially.
It was a terrific start from the hosts who put 1-7 on the board before Offaly managed to open their account.
Offaly dug deep and tagged on 11 points by half-time to trail by just five at the break, 1-13 to 0-11.
A second Kelly goal in the 44th minute put Louth 15 points clear at that stage and further points from Kelly, Conor Marron and Andrew Reilly helped seal back-to-back wins.
It's all to play for in Group 2 following wins this evening for Kildare and Westmeath.
Neither side had won in Round 1 so the results have left Kildare on three points at the head of an ultra competitive group with Meath and Westmeath locked on two points behind them, ahead of Longford on a single point.
There are four teams in Group 1 and 2 and three of those will advance to the knock-out stage with the third placed team advancing to a preliminary quarter-final.
Kildare had to come from behind against Meath who led by 0-10 to 0-6 at half-time in Newbridge.
Rory Thompson's goal immediately after the restart boosted Kildare but they still trailed Meath by a point with three minutes of normal time remaining.
Late Kildare goals from TJ Donoghue and Niall McAndrew stole a dramatic five-point win for the Lilies.
Westmeath bounced back from their Round 1 loss to Meath with a morale boosting defeat of Longford.
There is one game left to play in the three-team Group 3 - Wexford v Carlow next week.
Paul McElligott's Carlow defeated Wicklow this evening thanks in part to two early goals from Ronan Dooley and Mark Buggy.
Carlow led by 2-9 to 1-5 at half-time and registered a vital third goal in the 42nd minute through Alan Fitzgerald at Netwatch Cullen Park.
The state of play in Group 3 with that single game to go is that Carlow, who have played two games, and Wicklow, who have played one game, are both locked on two points. Wexford are on zero points after losing in Round 1.
