Louth pay the penalty for missed opportunity
Tyrone Louth 1-21 1-16
DARVER in January is not for the faint hearted and that proved to be the case on Sunday afternoon for the Louth hurlers, as they also lost their opening round fixture in Division 3A of the National Hurling League to travelling Tyrone.
The game hinged on a missed penalty from St. Fechins debutant Ryan Walsh with ten minutes of normal remaining. The game was poised, 0-15 points a piece at that stage and Louth simply never recovered from the psychological damage the missed opportunity caused.
Conor Grogan’s late goal for the Red Hands capped a 1-6 to 1-1 scoring run after Conor McElhatton’s save and Tyrone gladly went home with the two points on offer.
Yet, Louth manager Paul McCormack can come away from the tie with optimism. His side led for the majority of the tie and you must remember, Tyrone beat Louth by 15 in Omagh in last year’s corresponding fixture.
That competitiveness didn’t look apparent in the opening minutes, when the visitors fired off three points in a row from Lorcan Devlin, Conor McNally and top scorer on the day Damien Casey with his first free.
However Louth showed grit would stay in touch with a brace of free’s from the trusty Darren Geoghegan before the impressive Feidhelm Joyce levelled with Louth’s first from play.
The sides would go point for point with the returning Shane Callan and Andrew McCrave finding the range.
Geoghegan’s accuracy in fact gave Louth a deserved 0-12 to 0-9 lead going into the half time whistle but Casey made sure Tyrone were still in a position to pounce.
Knockbridge substitute Conor Deane and Callan pushed Louth further ahead after the interval but in that third quarter Tyrone upped the ante and were soon level. Devlin providing inspiration with a booming score from distance and Casey duly applied the leveller.
Walsh gave the hosts the lead for the last time soon after with a free before his unfortunate penalty malaise. Tyrone powered on to get out of jail and Callan buried a consolation goal in what was a remarkable day for himself and his family and their association of Louth Hurling.
The Pearse Óg man made it 7 consecutive decades that a Callan has lined out for the Louth hurlers.
TYRONE: Conor Mc Elhatton; Dean Rafferty, Ruairi Devlin, Dermot Begley; Josh Ferguson, Chris Kearns, Padraig McHugh; Conor McNally 0-1, Lorcan Devlin 0-3; Ryan Butler, Ryan McGurk, Conor Grogan1-3; Matthew Mulgrew 0-3, Damian Casey 0-9 (8f), Liam Armstrong 0-1. Subs: John McGurk for R Butler (44), Ben Gormley 0-1 for P Mc Hugh (55).
LOUTH: Donal Connolly; Andrew Smith, Ronan Byrne 0-2 (1f), Stephen Kettle; Jamie McDonnell, Liam Molloy Andrew McCrave 0-1; Niall Keenan, Donal Ryan; Darren Geoghegan 0-8 (7f), Shane Callan 1-2, Feidhelm Joyce 0-1; David Kettle, Seaghan Conneely, Ryan Walsh 0-1 (1f). Subs - Conor Deane 0-1 for N Keenan (32), Padraig Fallon for D Geoghegan (44), Andrew Mackin for D Kettle (55), Conor Matthews for A McCrave (66), Robert Grace for R Walsh (70).
REFEREE: Richie Fitzsimons (Offaly)