Louth gave Dubs a

THIS picture taken in July, 1992 in Croke Park shows the current Dublin manager, Dessie Farrell tackles Louth’s Stephen Melia in the Leinster semi-final. Sadly Stephen, a stalwart for Louth for many years, died in 2015 having played a record 179 times for his county.

After the match, which Dublin won, 0-15 to 1-9, the Dublin manager, Paddy Cullen admitted that his heart stopped a few times, for while the Dubs dominated the early stages of the game they squandered a number of goals chances, Louth left the field at the interval leading 1-5 to 0-4.

Their goal was magnificently converted by Stefan White in the 35th minute when he latched onto a Kevin O’Hanlon kick-down to steer the ball past John O’Leary.

Indeed when Louth stretched their lead just after the restart with White point, the large travelling support from the Wee County, who had left both Dundalk and Drogheda looking like ‘ghost towns’ on the day of the match, felt that it was going to be their day.

Increasingly however Louth were forced to feed on scraps round the midfield area where the physically stronger Dubs dominated and they gradually whittle down Louth’s lead.

Remarkably though with just eight minutes remaining, Louth led with a fine John Osborne point, and they held up hopes that they could hang on until the final minutes when Dublin’s strength at midfield and half-back told.

One incident in the game, a crunching shoulder high tackle by Dublin’s Keith Barr on Louth’s Michael Malone became the subject of much debate after the game.

The incident took place late in the game when the Louth forward, much lighter in stature than the Dublin defender was making tracks for goal when he was hit full on by a shoulder challenge by Barr.

As a result Malone, a St. Mary’s player, was badly winded and it took some minutes for him to recover.

The tackle incensed the Louth followers and the team doctor, David Connolly, who attended the player, said afterwards that the GAA would have to take steps to prevent such tackles in the game before a player sustained serious injury.

The doctor made the point that Malone was turning when tackled and had no chance of protecting himself from the challenge.

The tackle became the focus of much debate in the TV studios after the game, and the slow motion pictures showed that it was not really a shoulder to shoulder tackle.

However, both Kildare manager, Mick O’Dwyer and former Offaly manager, Eugene Magee felt that it was a fair tackle and that Barr was unlucky to be booked.

The Dublin players admitted after the game that Louth presented a much stiffer test that they anticipated, and Tommy Carr revealed that they felt under real pressure when they went a point down with eight minutes to go.

“Louth had taken all the pressure and came back to take the lead, and at that moment we felt that we were living on the edge”.

The Louth players felt that many did not realise how strong the breeze was on the day, and having to face that breeze in the second half was difficult, given that they had put so much effort into the first half.

Kevin O’Hanlon who came into the game after 30 minutes for the injured Redmond O’Neill felt that Dublin deserved to win, adding that we just couldn’t get the ball past midfield in the second half because of the breeze and the strength of the Dublin players”.

Manager, Declan Smyth admitted that his team hadn’t the physical strength to compete with Dublin in the areas that mattered, but he took great heart from the spirit shown by his players to take the lead with eight minutes to go.

Louth team that day: Niall