Eager Reds all set for a battle royale with old foes

ADRIAN Reid’s return to fitness could be very timely for Louth ahead of their Leinster Championship showdown with Meath at Parnell Park on Sunday (3.30).

The Mattock Rangers man has been out of commission since undergoing surgery on his wrist in mid-March, but with Conall McKeever set to miss Sunday’s derby with a knee injury, Colin Kelly may be tempted to throw his captain back in at the deep end.

‘Adrian is back in contention albeit with not a lot game time and it’s a big ask to step up from a couple of club games after a few of months out.

‘We don’t know where we are with Conall, he took a very heavy knock on his knee against Carlow. He’s invaluable to us for a fella who just came in to us from the junior squad last year. The strides he’s made are incredible and he’s now a typical modern day player who gets up and down the pitch and has a high skillset. He’ll be a big loss to us.’

Ruairi Moore will also feel he can fill McKeever’s boots if required having impressed largely in substitute roles this spring, so Kelly does have other options if he decides Reid is too big a risk.

Whatever team he selects Kelly expects a more disciplined performance than the Reds produced against Carlow in the opening round, but he doesn’t want to curb their natural attacking instincts either.

‘They were disappointed after the Carlow performance because conceding three goals hurt them,’ he revealed.

‘We encourage the lads to play what they see and games take on different dynamics. Against Carlow they were pretty open at the back and we probably pushed on a wee bit too much offensively, leaving ourselves a wee bit open at the back.

‘It’s not that we didn’t have numbers back, it was a more a case of having four or five there but everyone was leaving the job to someone else. Every time we have a chance to tackle against Meath we’ll have to make it. If Carlow put 3-11 up on you, that kind of defensive display wouldn’t be good enough against Meath.

‘We had a very successful campaign, but against opposition two divisions below the team we face on Sunday and we have to be realistic about that.

‘Scoring is something we’ve never had a problem with over the last few years and we’ve always scored highly. It was about getting the balance right and our fitness levels are better now. There’s more confidence in the group and fellas are embracing what we want to do.

‘There’s lot of talk now about blanket defences and zones, but ultimately if you’re two-through-seven you have to mark; defenders defend. Then your extra couple of defenders are there to give you a hand. Likewise the half back line is the platform for attack. We won’t change much from the League, we’ll just be encouraging them to be the best they can be on the day and see where it takes us.’

The Louth chief dismissed the notion that Louth will hold a competitive edge having contested a league final a Leinster first round tie. He insisted those games will brought his team on, but that is as far as it goes.

‘Anytime you get a chance to play to play in Croke Park and win something it’s great for the development of everybody and it’s a great lift for the county.

‘The Carlow match in the Championshiop was a tricky assignment which everyone expected us to win. I thought for long periods we were excellent although there were a few things we have looked at in training.

‘But I’m sure Meath’s preparation has been excellent. Micko has his finger on the pulse there and he’ll have had a right good look at us and know what we’re about. At the end of the day it’s a Championship match and it’s about throwing the kitchen sink at it.’

Sunday’s clash has inevitably evoked memories and emotions from the fateful Leinster final of 2010, which Meath won courtesy of Joe Sheridan goal, which TV replays clearly showed should have been diallowed.

Kelly himself has been on the end of some painful defeats to Meath and while he insists none of will be relevant on Sunday, it will add some bite to proceed- ings.

‘History won’t affect what happens on Sunday. It does add spice to it because we can’t pretend to be lifelong friends. There’s a good bit of rivalry and it will be intense and I just hope our guys deliver a performance that mirrors that. But they won’t be looking at the past because that can’t affect the result; what can affect the result is how we perform.

‘I think I only played two Championship games against Meath. The first was in ‘89 when they were very strong on the back of All-Ireland wins in ‘87 and ‘88. It was a ding-dong affair in Navan and we fell short. In ‘98 in Croke Park in a Leinster semi-final, again there was a point in it. I was standing right behind Graham Geraghty when he took a shot into Hill 16 and a point was given that wasn’t and then we had a free from 21 yards and Ollie McDonnell of all people kicked it short, so that was a two-point swing and inevitably we lost out by a point. That was a Meath team that had recently won an All-Ireland and likewise in ‘87 and ‘88, so they were strong, competitive Meath teams.’

Sunday will be Kelly’s first meaningful tussle with the Royals as a manager and he’s relishing the occasion.

‘I’m really looking forward to it. People often ask me what it’s like managing and sometimes it’s not nice. As a player you only have to worry about the game but as a manager you cover all avenues and the quite rightly the buck stops with you. But I’m really excited about this one because the Louth/Meath thing does add a little bit of spice to it.’