‘WE’RE NOT GETTING CARRIED AWAY . . . IT’S JUST A MATCH IN JANUARY’

ANDY McDonnell expressed delight with events in Hawkfield last Wednesday night but insisted that the the Louth players won’t be reading too much into the eightpoint away victory over Kildare. The Newtown Blues man agreed that the Reds had produced a much-improved display compared to the Longford game, but the O’Byrne competition carried little significance compared to the upcoming National League campaign. ‘It was a great win,’ he began. ‘We started off quite well and got a lead with the wind and we didn’t let up. We went in five points up at the break and probably should have been seven or eight. ‘We knew Kildare would come at us and we had to attack from the throw-in and hopefully push on from there and we did that. We went seven or eight points up and controlled the game towards the latter end and played quite well. ‘It was a big difference compared to the Longford game. ‘But I know it’s just the start. It’s the O’Byrne Cup, it’s just a match in January and you seen against Longford we were well bet. We’re not going to get too carried away. We know it wasn’t Kildare’s strongest team - it wasn’t our strongest team either - but a lot of lads put their hand up out there today and it’s great going into the league. ‘Hopefully we can push on for the next couple of weeks, train hard and get a good run in Division 2. Whether we qualify or not we have a few games before the first match against Down on the last week of January. It’ll be tough, especially with a new panel. We have a lot of lads who stepped aside, but we have a panel there that’s hungry and we’re up for the challenge. Please God we can hold our own [in Division 2] and see what happens after that.’ It wasn’t all one-way traffic in Hawkfield, with Kildare eating into Louth’s lead towards the end of the first half, but tactical changes helped the Wee County regain the initiative in the second period. ‘We dropped back too deep in our own 45 and they came at ‘ us for the last 10 minutes of the first half,’ said McDonnell, who thought of coming off at half-time as he was suffering with a dose of the cold. ‘Kildare have some great players, strong runners down the middle, and we knew we had to push them out wide and force them to turn the ball over. We regrouped at half-time and Pete said - we all agreed - that we had to push out, hold the press line and try and turn