Juniors seal home final spot
1-18 0-10
LOUTH fans have at least one Leinster final to look forward to this summer following an excellent victory over Kildare in the Junior semi-final last Wednesday night.
The prize is a home final clash with Wexford, a game scheduled for June 22nd, but with Ireland due to play Italy that night, it could yet be moved.
Colin Kelly fielded a youthful side against a Kildare team that saw off Meath in the quarter-finals and he would have left Newbridge a happy man following an accomplished performance.
Nerves were settled from the throw in when the impressive Anthony McKenna won possession in and played in Shane O’Hanlon who pointed.
In the opening twenty minutes both sides kicked six points each with Louth’s next five scores coming from a Robbie Curran free, Dan O’Connell and three from the boot of young Kilkerley man Tadhg McEneaney.
On the run into half time three more Louth points from Dara Hamill, Dean Maguire and Niall Sharkey from Glyde Rangers give Louth a 0-9 to 0-6 lead at the break.
Colin Kelly could not have asked for a better start to the second half when once again Louth won the throw in and Cathal Bellew went on an excellent run to blast the ball to the back of the Kildare net. This was quickly followed by three points in a two minute spell for Louth when Bellew’s clubmate Sean Hand along with Dara Hamill and Darragh Lafferty pointed to open up a nine point lead.
The visitors kicked six more points in the second half through Lafferty, McEneaney and four top class long range frees from Robbie Curran. Kildare were reduced to fourteen men near the end when midfielder Paschal Connell received a black card having earlier picked up a yellow. HE grew up within a stone’s throw of Louth/Meath border and went to school in the Royal County, so Conor Grimes probably knows what he’s taking about when he says the atmosphere at Parnell Park will be red-hot on Sunday.
‘It’s Louth and Meath and it’s a tight venue so the atmosphere will be intense,’ insists the big full forward. ‘It’s going to be a great occasion to be involved in and we’re really looking forward to the challenge. Our supporters have been amazing all year. In the league final all we could hear was Louth fans cheering us on and coming off the back of two tough years that was a great boost. Hopefully they’ll be there again to cheer us to victory.’
Conor knows that won’t be as easy as it sounds, however, and even apart from the higher calibre opposition, he insists Louth have to improve too on their opening round win over Carlow.
‘The Carlow performance wouldn’t be good enough. It got us through on the day, but that was against a Division 4 team who struggled all year and we made hard work of it.
‘It wasn’t an easy game at all and we know we’ll have to up for it big time for Meath who are a Division 2 team and will be an awful lot stronger than Carlow.
‘We’ve been working hard together and there’s a strong bond in the squad, but if we concede goals like we did against Carlow we’ll be in real bother. So it will be about getting our concentration right and keeping our intensity high and not concede goals like that because we know Meath have the players and talent to cause us real trouble.
‘The momentum we’ve built up is great, especially for a young group of players who thrive on confidence. We’re coming off the back of a good league campaign, but in the back of our minds we know it was only Division 4 and Meath held their own in Division 2, which a big feat for them too. So we’re not getting ahead of ourselves at all.’
Grimes revealed there has been a real championship feel around Darver since the win over Carlow allowed the Reds to turn their attentions to their Royal neighbours.
He insists the current squad have nothing to fear against