Louth 1-19 Wicklow 1-14
Louth will face old rivals Meath in the quarter-finals of the Leinster SFC next month after overcoming Wicklow as expected at Parnell Park.
Eoin O'Connor's 1-02 haul and terrific display helped the Wee County advance beyond the opening round for the eighth time in the last decade.
Colin Kelly's side were promoted to Division 2 of the Allianz Football League and maintained their strong form to set up a June 4 date with neighbours Meath.
They will fancy their chances of a famous provincial championship win on that occasion after showing all their grit to see off the Garden County.
The sides were level with 20 minutes to go but a strong Louth finale and important points from substitutes Declan Byrne, Jim McEneaney and Gerard McSorley secured their passage.
As for Wicklow they're still seeking their first win in the Championship under boss Johnny Magee and will hope for a kind qualifier draw before their return to action next month.
They contributed to an exciting, end-to-end game that was played in good spirits though came up short yet again as they chased a first summer-time win since 2014.
O'Connor was excellent for Louth at full-forward, initially, and posted his 1-02 in the first-half to propel the north-eastern outfit to a four-point half-time lead.
Ryan Burns weighed in with four early points too as Louth opened up with some attractive attacking play despite missing key men like Derek Maguire, Conor Grimes, Adrian Reid and Andy McDonnell for various reasons.
O'Connor's 11th minute goal owed much to the industry of Anthony Williams who accepted a ball over the top and passed it across to O'Connor to palm in.
But Williams' afternoon ended soon after when he was black carded for hauling down Dean Healy at the other end.
It coincided with a period of Wicklow dominance and 1-03 without reply from Magee's men, including a well taken Mark Kenny goal, to put the Division 4 side 1-04 to 1-02 up.
Louth finished the half strong though and a succession of scores from the likes of free-taker Burns, Paraic Smith, O'Connor and Padraig Rath nudged them 1-11 to 1-07 clear at the interval.
Louth appeared to be hitting top form after four points in a row but a solid third quarter for Wicklow saw the underdogs tie the scores up at 1-12 apiece.
Wicklow outscored Louth by 0-05 to 0-01 in the 15 minutes after half-time and picked off some excellent scores from Paul Cunningham and Seanie Furlong who was back in Championship action after three years.
Wicklow, crucially, never managed to move ahead in the closing stages and while they were just a point behind with 66 minutes on the clock, 1-15 to 1-14, they were always playing catch up.
Louth hit 11 second-half wides in total but adjusted their radar late on to pick off four points without reply to seal a slightly flattering five-point win.
Louth got a serious boost from their bench with three of their last four points coming from substitutes.
Louth: C Lynch; P Rath (0-01), P Reilly, K Carr; C McKeever (0-01), J Bingham, A Williams; T Durnin, J Stewart; D Marks, P Smith (0-02), B Duffy (0-01); R Moore (0-01), E O'Connor (1-02), R Burns (0-06, 0-05f).
Subs: D McMahon for Williams (14), black card, J McEneaney (0-02) for McKeever (47), D Byrne (0-02) for Moore (51), S Mulroy for Burns (55), G McSorley (0-01) for Smith (55), K Murphy for Marks (73).
Wicklow: R Lambert (0-01, 0-01f); C Hyland, S Kelly, B Kennedy; J Crowe, P McLoughlin, D Fitzgerald; D Boothman (0-01), N Gaffney; C Ffrench (0-01), D Healy (0-01), D Hayden (0-01); M Kenny (1-01), S Furlong (0-04, 0-03f), P Cunningham (0-03, 0-01f).
Subs: J McGrath (0-01) for Cunningham (60), A McLoughlin for Boothman (60), P Traynor for P McLouglhin (63), R Finn for Kenny (70).
Referee: N Cullen (Fermanagh).
