JOHN SAVAGE

‘I was sitting between Darren Clarke and Aaron Hoey in the stand - it’s the Hogan Stand on that side isn’t it? Anyway, Fitzer turns around on the sideline pointing up at us. I just sat there, but Clarkie gave me an elbow and said, ‘I think he wants you.’

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A decade on it’s still hard to distinguish the sweet from the sour; they’ll forever be entwined.

But without a speck of doubt, Derek Maguire’s ‘sweet’ was the history-making semi-final win over Westmeath. He’s certainly not alone there. Up to that point, the lightning fast Young Irelander hadn’t played a single minute of Louth’s Leinster Championship campaign. A very forgettable hard slog against Longford came and went. The very unforgettable victory over Kildare passed him by too. Managers like to say kind things about it being a squad effort, but as far as Maguire was concerned he might as well have been in the stand with the rest of us.

‘It’s hard to feel part of it,’ he admits. ‘With your club you’re one of the better players, obviously all

THEN I SAW COLM JUDGE’S MAN MAKE A DART BACK TO [COVER] THE LINE AND I KNEW JUDGIE WOULD BE FREE, SO I POPPED IT TO HIM AND HE WASN’T GOING TO MISS FROM THERE

county players are, so when you’re not getting a game it’s tough.

‘Don’t get me wrong you’re obviously delighted when the team wins and these are all top players, but it’s hard to feel like you have really contributed if you haven’t played.’

So when Peter Fitzpatrick, his uncle and manager, decided to juggle things up a bit midway through the second-half against Westmeath, it was only natural to assume that he was pointing at Clarke or Hoey.

Like Maguire the ultra-experienced duo were vying for a cameo in the full forward line.

‘When I realised, I jumped up and I still remember the nerves. Louth hadn’t been to a Leinster final for 50 years and there were a few very near misses in semi-finals in the ‘90s. There was about 20 minutes left and, I don’t remember what the score was but I think they had just scored the penalty, so it was in the balance.

‘The first ball I got, I gave Brian White a terrible pass, but he somehow won it and popped it back to me. I swung the leg at it and luckily it went over the bar. That settled me a bit.’

Five minutes later, Louth had one foot in the Leinster final.

‘Adrian Reid played a ball to me down the line and I tried to take on my opponent to go past him and I think he might have slipped. So I kept going and saw Gary Connaughton coming out towards me. We all know Gary, he has a massive frame and the angle probably favoured him.

‘Then I saw Colm Judge’s man make a dart back to [cover] the line and I knew Judgie would be free, so I popped it to him and he wasn’t going to miss from there.’

Louth were back in control and despite a late Westmeath goal, they hung on to reach the county’s first provincial decider since 1960.

The celebrations afterwards be-fitted the occasion and this time Maguire was in the thick of it.

‘It was pure ecstasy. I remember seeing Seamus and Kevin O’Hanlon sprinting onto the pitch and I think it was Kevin threw me up in the air. The lads were coming from the Premium Level so they had a good way to travel, but once they got down there was no security guard or steward going to stop them getting on to that pitch.

‘It was an amazing experience. I remember Charlie [McAllister] celebrating too. He followed Louth through thick and thin and came through a tough time in his own life around then and you