Louth secured a first championship win over Dublin since 1973 after Craig Lennon’s late goal steered them to a 4-18 to 1-24 victory at Croke Park this afternoon.

A repeat of last month’s Leinster SFC semi-final meeting, which the Dubs won by 10 points, saw Gavin Devlin’s side shredding the script as the capital men were inflicted with back-to-back championship defeats for the first time.

Dublin’s strong start before a 16,610 crowd at headquarters saw them 0-5 to 0-2 up prior to Cormac Costello’s two-pointer making it a five-point game with 13 minutes on the clock.

Louth got motoring with a two-point free from Sam Mulroy and would suddenly hit the front after Mulroy (free) and Ciaran Downey saw their points backed up by a Kieran McArdle goal 10 minutes before half-time.

WE ARE LEVEL 🚨🚨

James Maguire goes alone and finds the back of the net for @louthgaa 🎯🔥

GAME ON ‼️@DubGAAOfficial @louthgaa #DUBvLOU

Clips Courtesy of @AIB_GAA pic.twitter.com/F0vMuCs9fn

— GAA+ (@GAAPlusOfficial) May 31, 2026

Back on duty from injury, Con O’Callaghan netted the Dubs back in front on the half-hour mark and the scores of Charlie McMorrow, Sean Bugler and Costello would see them holding a 1-12 to 1-6 lead by the time the half-time hooter sounded.

The Wee County sent over the first three scores of the second-half, including a Ryan Burns two-pointer, and then James Maguire netted twice for them in the space of a minute to put his side back ahead by 3-10 to 1-13.

Substitute Ciaran Byrne and Downey added points, leaving Ger Brennan’s side to battle in the closing stages to get back on level terms and it was their ace O’Callaghan that brought the game all square prior to Ciaran Kilkenny pushing the Dubs ahead.

Byrne and Costello traded points and McArdle levelled for Louth prior to Lennon crashing in a 67th minute goal which proved too much for their opponents to overcome in the end, with Costello’s free being erased by a Paul Matthews point in the final minutes as Louth saw out the famous win which puts them into the Round 2A section of Tuesday morning’s All-Ireland SFC draw.

GOALLL 🚨🚨🚨

With only minutes remaining and the game level, it is Craig Lennon who snatches a goal to put @louthgaa in front ‼️@DubGAAOfficial @louthgaa #DUBvLOU

Clips Courtesy of @AIB_GAA pic.twitter.com/gGjKsvDjMS

— GAA+ (@GAAPlusOfficial) May 31, 2026

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