Rejuvenated Reds want to extend their summer

AFTER a record-breaking display in London, William Woods has Leitrim in his crosshairs, but he insists Louth cannot - and will not - underestimate the Connacht outfit in Carrick-on-Shannon on Saturday night.

After an abysmal league campaign the Reds have been afforded a golden opportunity to make some summer headway for the first time in quite a few years by drawing London in round one of the Qualifiers, followed by another bottom-tier side in Leitrim.

Woods, who kicked a Championship record 13 points against the Exiles, revealed that the win brought relief and confidence in almost equal measure, while the following morning’s draw was an added bonus.

There’s no getting away from the fact that even struggling Division 4 sides represent a serious potential banana skin for Louth in their current predicament, but it was as kind a draw as they could have hoped for, even if Leitrim feel exactly the same way.

‘The mood is a lot better, training was really good on the Tuesday after the London game and there was a great buzz around the place. The draw was kind enough too, but having said that Leitrim are no doubt saying the same about Louth, we’re probably the team they wanted too,’ reasoned the Naomh Fionnbarra man.

Having had his first chance at an extended run in the senior set-up under Aidan O’Rourke cut short by a bad ankle injury, Woods’ second-coming coincided with a dreadful National League campaign, but while he admits it was a testing time, he says that a solid team spirit kept heads up.

‘It has been tough and the results get you down, but there’s a great bunch of lads here and there was still always a good buzz when you got back to training. It’s hard losing so many games in a row, but there’s a good mix between youth and experience in the squad and I think the young lads probably bounce back quick enough and the older lads like Andy and Jim talk you through it.

‘But there’s nothing like winning games and you could see the confidence coming back on Sunday when we started well. Lads were looking to get on the ball and make an impact, especially the younger lads like Ciaran Downey, who was superb and is still only 21.’

Another good start will be the first target on Saturday night, but maintaining it will be equally important as the Reds found out to their cost against Carlow.

‘You’d always be aiming to make a good start and maybe it just wasn’t happening for us this year, but we kicked three points in the first four or five minutes against London. After that we stopped and London came back with 1-2 so it was good to come through that too and kick on again.

‘But against Carlow we played well enough for 25 minutes and when they tagged on a few before half-time and then hit their purple patch we lost our way.

‘That was maybe down to inexperience, so it was good to see the lads push on against London after they came back at us in the first-half and then again late in the game.’

Woods could hardly have hoped for a better individual display against London, but he was keen to spread the plaudits around.

‘I was happy enough with the frees, it was one of those days when they go over. But we got nine points from the half forward line which was really encouraging and Tommy and Andy were superb in the middle.

‘It was our first win in eight competitive matches so it felt good to win a game and then to get a winnable draw in the next round was great too.

‘We wouldn’t know much about Leitrim, but the lads do their homework and we’ll have video clips and all the information we need on them by the end of the week.’

But there’s nothing like winning games and you could see the confidence coming back on Sunday when we started well