Raining goals in Ardee sunshine
Louth Wicklow 6-9 5-12
IT rained goals in the brilliant Ardee sunshine last Wednesday night as Louth and Wicklow served up a marvellous advertisement for the new under-17 minor grade.
For an hour they sparred relentlessly, blow for blow, punch for counter-punch, and every time they came back swinging.
After losing their opening games, a draw probably isn’t much use to either camp, but defeat, whichever way it fell, would have been unbearably harsh.
Louth looked to have nicked it, edging two points ahead with time almost up.
By that stage they’d already exchanged a whopping 10 goals between them but the sublime Eoin Darcy still had a final ace up his sleeve.
And boy did he play it with dramatic effect, rifling a 13-metre free to the roof of the net over a seemingly impenetrable wall of red.
Louth heads didn’t drop, however, and within seconds they were raiding up the right wing under the stand.
Their chance to squeeze anything from the game looked to have passed when Wicklow won a free deep in their own half, but Louth turned it over and won a free of their own a little further out than Darcy’s pile-driver moments earlier.
This time, Ryan Walsh played the percentages and stroked his kick over the bar, rescuing a share of the spoils for the home side.
That late drama was like a short show reel for an hour’s worth of thrilling entertainment.
The pace was relentless from the start and attacks were very much on top.
Not a sweeper or blanket defence in sight and it was supporters who were rewarded, managers maybe not so much!
The respective coaching teams must have been pulling their hair out at times as defences were unlocked with alarming ease.
Both sides netted three goals apiece in short spells between the fifth and 18th minutes.
With Darcy in unplayable form, Wicklow seemed to seize the early initiative.
The Tinahely man slotted a penalty to make it 1-1 to 0-1 after five minutes and he set up Jack Fleming Foran for a second moments after Ruairi Hanlon had palmed home Louth’s first goal at the other end.
If Darcy was Wicklow’s tormenter-in-chief, ge was pushed all the way for man-of-the-match by Louth’s Sean Healy, who set up Hanlon’s first goal and then a second for Daire Nally in the 14th minute.
By that stage Matthew Ging had sold two glorious dummies before rifling home Wicklow’s third goal, so by the end of the third-quarter the visitors were marginally ahead, 3-2 to 2-3.
But the relentless attacks and counter-attacks continued and Jonathan Commins pinged an upright just before Sean Doody increased Wicklow’s lead to a goal, 3-3 to 2-3.
But they were soon level as a gut-busting run by Gabriel Bell carved out space for Craig Lennon to tee up Ryan Walsh for a third Louth goal - the sixth of the match - with just 18 minutes on the clock.
Wicklow will probably feel they shaded the opening half in terms of possession and territory, but Louth’s counter-attacking threat was huge and Walsh fired home his second goal of the game on 25 minutes, wiping out three excellent scores for the Garden County from Darcy (2) and Shaun Cranley.
Conall McCaul and Cranley traded points before the break, at which point everybody was grateful of the chance to catch a breather.
But the drama continued straight after the restart as Jonathan Commins squared to Cathal Fleming to force home yet another goal just 70 seconds into the new half.
But in a game that just kept on giving, Wicklow hit back with a point from Alan Barrett and yet another goal, this one from a scorching run and fierce finish by wing back Kevin Quinn.
Louth started to take control of the contest after that, winning a lot more midfield ball than they had managed in the opening half and they slowly wrested back the lead, 5-7 to 4-9, before Walsh teed up Healy for a deserved goal for the superb Naomh Mairtin man.
That put four in it and Louth looked set to kick for home.
But Wicklow had other ideas and closed the gap to the minimum again with points from Quinn, Craig Maguire and Darcy, making it 6-7 to 4-12.
A Commins point at the other end appeared to drag Louth through the storm, but that man Darcy set up a barnstorming finish.
A fitting end to a truly fantastic contest. LOUTH: Martin McEneaney; Nathan Buckley, Paul McEvoy, Tom Jackson; Cathal Fleming 1-0, Craig Shevlin, Gabriel Bell; Conall McCaul 0-1, Joe Mee, Craig Lennon 0-1, Daire Nally 1-2, Ruairi Hanlon 1-1, Sean Healy 1-1, Ryan Walsh 2-1 (1f), Jonathan Commins 0-2 (1f). Subs: Finbarr Lynch for N Buckley (ht), Micheal Begley for R Hanlon (42).
WICKLOW: Niall Gaffney; Christopher Grimes, David Lawlor, Tom Moran; Kevin Quinn 1-1, Oisin Cullen, Gavin Fogarty; Eoghan Byrne, Sean Doody 0-1; John Keogh 1-1, Eoin Darcy 2-4, Alan Barrett 0-1; Matthew Ging 1-0, Shaun Cranley 0-2, Jack Fleming Foran 0-1. Subs: Sam Kearney for O Cullen (42), Craig Maguire 0-1 for J Fleming Foran (45), Shane Daly for S Cranley (49), Fionn O’Carroll for P Lawlor (52), John Doyle for Matthew Ging (53), Jason Steed for Gavin Fogarty (60), J Keogh (black card 60+ not replaced)
REFEREE: Patrick Maguire (Longford)