Wayne insists there’s plenty still to play for
ALLIANZ NFL DIVISION 3
LOUTH boss Wayne Kierans has all but resigned himself to the fact that his side will be playing Division 4 football next season. There is a slim chance of escaping the drop, but Kierans is more interested in embracing the test against the Division’s top team Cork on Sunday.
‘Thats it, we have nothing to lose now,’ Kierans said. ‘Cork are the outstanding team in the division. Five out of five. So we want to go down there and give a good account of ourselves. We don’t want to finish with zero points either, that’s another metric we’ve talked about.
‘Maybe the likes of Cork and Down will suit us better. Even last year, we beat one of the teams that got promoted and drew with the other one. That’s alright talking, but we really need to produce a proper performance and try not to repeat the Leitrim situation.’
Kierans hopes the long trip south will help his charges incubate themselves and boost morale but after a strong weeks training already banked the initials signs show that there will a positive response from Louth.
‘Yeah, we are going away on the Saturday,’ Kierans disclosed. ‘From that point of view getting us together will help. It is just about refocusing and trying to get a performance against Cork. It is good we are away for a night but I was more impressed with the weeks training. Thats what gives me good vibes going down.
‘We didn’t do a hell of a lot on Tuesday night but we had some talks in a meeting, we have them every week, but it was very positive in terms of; we’re in a bad place, we know our performances aren’t good particularly against Leitrim and they really want to react. We trained Friday night and Sunday morning very well.
‘So if we can repeat that this week we’ll go down, obviously
Cork Down Longford Derry Offaly Tipperary Leitrim Louth
P 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5
W 5 3 3 2 2 1 1 0
L 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 5
D 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0
SD 24 7 14 5 -4 -10 -17 -19
Pts 10 7 7 5 5 3 3 0 the confidence wouldn’t be great, but the frame of mind will be a wee bit better, in the hope we can produce.’
The key area’s Kierans will be looking to address after Sunday week’s loss to Leitrim will be how his side defended.
‘Technically, at the back and how open we were against Leitrim in the second half,’ Kierans pinpointed. ‘We conceded 3-14 and a lot of those were so easy for them to execute. So we did change the shape, I did say that after the game, slightly, nothing crazy in terms of how we set up but we were definitely way too open at the back and our transitions from the back to the front were not good at all in the second half.’
Such was the poor level of that Louth performance, Kierans and his players came in for stinging criticism the following night at the County Board meeting, but Kierans isn’t feeling any added pressure.
‘Not particularly,’ Kierans claimed. ‘All I felt was disappointment. Every game, whether it was average or good, obviously we didn’t get any results, but you could say there was patches there that we were okay and we just had to bring it all together. The disappointing thing against Leitrim was that we were poor overall in the seventy plus minutes.
‘Whether that creates pressure? Disappointment really, was the word for me. I was pretty gutted, the lads were pretty gutted and the management team were disappointed as well. What goes on outside really you know, you have to be aware it I suppose, but you have to try and look after your own side, the things you can control.’
With the league winding down and so much to work on, is the Louth mindset already looking towards the Leinster Championship?
‘It sort of is,’ Kierans admitted. ‘We always go on about focusing on the next game and all that, and there is definitely a will there to show a reaction and get a far stronger performance in, than Leitrim. It was poor, it really was poor. The only word for it.
‘So while we want to react, from a management point of view there is an eye on the championship campaign because the league in terms of the table is done and dusted, so there is that medium outlook going on, yes.’