Slaying ghosts of 2015 felt so good
PARAIC Smith admitted that Louth’s last visit to Semple Stadium in July of 2015 was a dark day for all concerned and that made winning promotion at the same venue on Sunday extra special.
‘I have to say two years ago was probably one of my worst days in football,’ said the Dreadnots man. ‘So to come back and get a victory against a good team like Tipperary is what it’s all about.
‘For a team like Louth it’s all about promotion. This is like our All-Ireland final, it’s a massive achievement, especially being down in Division 4 last year. To come up to Division 3 and win promotion again is massive.’
It certainly wasn’t all plain-sailing for the Reds in Thurles and Smith revealed that they needed to be told a few home truths at half-time.
‘Today was all about the performance for us and we just didn’t do ourselves justice in the first-half. I’m just delighted that we came out in the second-half and put a performance in. After two years ago where we embarrassed ourselves we needed a performance and in the second-half we made up for it.’
The Louth camp didn’t even need to go back as far as 2015 for motivation, righting the wrongs from the Armagh defeat was incentive enough, Smith conceded.
‘Last week was a lesson and you have to learn from them, which I think we did today. We didn’t concede any goals early on and last week that killed us.
‘At half-time we could have gone in five or six down so we were delighted it was only two. Especially with them missing the penalty, which I felt wasn’t a penalty, but that’s another issue.
‘In fairness Colin laid down the law at half-time, and we owed ourselves that performance in the second-half.
‘We kicked away possession 12 times in the first-half and that just isn’t good enough at this level. To turn around in the second-half and only give it away two or three times was a massive difference and that’s what won us the game,’ he added.
I have to say two years ago was probably one of my worst days in football