Louth not at the races as Armagh romp home
Armagh 3-15
Louth 0-11
LIKE a superstar novice coming unstuck at Cheltenham, Louth’s gallop was unceremoniously halted by Armagh on Sunday.
The Reds arrived at the Gaelic Grounds with four wins from four starts, but Armagh were showing solid form of their own of late and they cruised to an emphatic victory to close to within a point of their hosts and new joint leaders, Tipperary.
With Sligo falling three from home, Louth, Tipp and Armagh will slug it out in a three-horse race for promotion.
The penultimate fence is a daunting trip to Tipp and the stakes could scarcely be higher.
Defeat wouldn’t necessarily mean the end for either side, but a win would be enough to secure promotion.
If Louth win, Tipp wouldn’t be able to catch them due to the head-to-head rule, leaving the Premier County to fight it out with Armagh for the second promotion spot.
Similarly, if Louth lose, they won’t be able to catch Tipp, and would need a favour from Liam Kearns’ men when they face Armagh at the Athletic Grounds in their last game.
Sligo’s defeat to Longford is a bonus for Louth, as it means the Yeats’ men will have nothing to play for when they come to Drogheda on the final day of the campaign.
Louth will be hoping it won’t get that far, but they have a bit of work to do to bounce from Sunday’s heavy and worrying defeat.
Until Sunday the Reds boasted the meanest defence in the division, but they were put to the sword by a fast, hungry and physical Armagh attack from the start, and never really recovered.
Louth certainly seemed to feel the effect of Liam Dullaghan’s absence as they were cut open through the middle too easily and too often.
For their part, Armagh made light of losing Aidan Forker to a straight red card for striking after just 30 seconds.
They had 1-1 on the board by the time Ciaran Branagan evened the numbers up ten minutes later, sending off Anthony Williams for a similar, if less obvious, offence.
The early goal underlined just how easily Armagh were cutting the home defence open, leaving Ciaran McKeever with the relatively simple task of firing past an exposed Craig Lynch.
Armagh continued to make all the early running and after Williams dismissal they surged six points clear, 1-3 to no score.
Louth didn’t open their account until the 15th minute when the lively Paraic Smith eventually broke their duck, but almost immediately Armagh plundered their second goal, another flowing move emphatically finished off by Niall Rowland.
That put eight between the sides and Louth’s 100 per cent record was in serious peril.
Neither Jim McEneaney nor Andy McDonnell were included in the Reds’ match-day squad and how Kelly could have done with their know-how and experience.
He did call upon another old hand, sending Adrian Reid into the fray for Ruairi Moore, and to be fair to Louth they did rally a bit before the break.
Smith added a couple more from open play and Burns was accurate from dead balls, but Louth also racked up a string of costly wides as they adjourned facing a five-point deficit, 2-5 to 0-6.
But that was really as good as it got for the home side as Armagh took complete control after the break.
A point from the excellent Stephen Sheridan followed by a brace of frees from Niall Gormley put eight between the sides again.
If that wasn’t quite curtains for the hosts, another scoring burst from Armagh made it 2-12 to 0-7 at the end of the third quarter, Jamie Clarke helping himself to three in a row and the superb Rory Grugan adding his fourth point of the day.
Louth managed to stitch together three points without reply through Burns (free), Durnin and Ger McSorley, but that only cut the gap to eight and it was all soon in vain as Clarke slotted home a late penalty for Armagh, their 14th goal of the campaign and ninth in just two games.
Conall McKeever’s late point barely raised a whimper from the home crowd and that pretty much summed up Louth’s afternoon.
They were second best in pretty much every area of the pitch, but particularly in the middle third, a sector they have tended to dominate this season.
They never quite got to grips with Armagh’s pace and power and overall physicality, and that will give Colin Kelly some food for thought, both for this week’s clash with Tipp and into the summer months.
In the meantime the first, and possibly only, shot at redemption in terms of promotion, comes this weekend In Tipperary.
Tipp haven’t played like All-Ireland semi-finalists this spring, but they’ve been carving out results nonetheless and last Sunday was a case in point as Offaly led the new table-toppers for long periods but fell to a fourpoint defeat.
If Louth can flush last Sunday’s performance from the system in time, a win in Thurles is not beyond them, but they’ll certainly need a bit of luck in-running. ARMAGH: B Hughes; G McCabe, C Vernon, P Hughes (0-1); N Rowland (1-0), B Donaghy, A McKay; S Sheridan (0-1), A Findon; R Grugan (0-4, 1f), A Duffy, N Gormley (0-5, 3f); J Clarke (1-3), C McKeever (1-0), A Forker. Subs: B Crealey for A Findon (27), S Heffron for N Rowland (59), G McParland (0-1) for C McKeever (68), C O’Hanlon for A Duffy (68), N McConville for R Grugan (72).
LOUTH: Craig Lynch; Padraig Rath, Patrick Reilly, Kevin Carr; Derek Maguire, John Bingham, Anthony Williams; Tommy Durnin 0-2, Declan Byrne; James Stewart, Paraic Smith 0-3, Bevan Duffy; Ruairi Moore, Eoin O’Connor, Ryan Burns 0-4, (3f, 1’45’). Subs: Adrian Reid for R Moore (21), Ger McSorley 0-1 for J Bingham (45), Conall McKeever 0-1 for Eoin O’Connor (55), Kurt Murphy for K Carr (68), Ronan Holcroft for R Burns (70+).
REFEREE: C Branagan (Down)