BIG DERBY COMES JUST A BIT TOO EARLY FOR REID
But confidence is still high in Wee county
LAST weekend, with the country splashed in sunshine, Adrian Reid decided to venture into enemy territory. Taking advantage of the good weather, he brought his daughter and niece to Tayto Park in neighbouring Meath. If Mick O’Dowd had deployed any spies to the amusement park, they’d have reported that the Louth captain looks in tip-top shape.
Reid has been forced to observe from the sidelines as the Wee County made strides recently. He had surgery on his wrist in March after an initial fracture was misdiagnosed. But he’s back to full fitness and played a couple of club games in the past few weeks.
Louth boss Colin Kelly is keeping his most trusted lieutenant in reserve for today’s game, but with doubts over the fitness of Conall McKeever, defender Reid is likely to see some action in Parnell Park.
‘I had an x-ray before Christmas and the fracture wasn’t detected. It took another x-ray but it had gone on so long that I had to have surgery,’ Reid explains.
‘I sat down and talked to Colin about it and we decided that it was better to have the surgery in March, miss the final two League games and the Carlow game. I was always targeting the Meath match as the game where I would come back.’
This is a day that captures the essence of the Championship. In every province, there are games that may test family loyalties. Louth v Meath and Offaly v Westmeath in Leinster, Donegal v Fermanagh in Ulster, Roscommon v Sligo in Connacht. Counties with shared border and cross-pollination of families.
Reid’s a native of Collon, within spitting distance of the county line and neighbouring Meath. But his connection goes deeper. His mother is a Meath woman, from Lobinstown, and one side of his family bleeds green. Even within the Mattock Rangers club, he reckons there are one or two with allegiances to the Royal County, although they would have been keeping that quiet this week.
‘All of my uncles on that side would be mad Meath supporters, so I have been avoiding that side of the family for the past couple of weeks,’ he says with a chuckle. ‘There is actually a part of Collon that is, strictly speaking, inside Meath. There’s a lot of friendly banter ahead of this game.’
Of course, whenever these two counties meet, the controversial 2010 Leinster final hangs over the fixture. Those demons won’t be slayed for some time, although Reid, one of the few survivors from that game, insists the memory of Joe Sheridan’s ‘goal’ won’t be driving Louth in Donnycarney today.
‘It doesn’t even come into our thinking any more,’ he says. ‘That game will be brought up as long as Meath and Louth meet in the Championship but it is six years ago and both sides have completely new sets of players.
‘There are very few of us who were on the pitch that day still playing, so it will have no effect on what happens in Parnell Park. It’s great for the supporters, gives them something to have banter about but it will have no influence on the players.’
Even though he’s only 29, Reid admits to feeling like an elder statesman amid all the youth Kelly has drafted into the Louth set-up. Experienced campaigners like Paddy Keenan, Shane Lennon, Brian White and John O’Brien have all departed the scene in the past few years, leaving a void in leadership. Reid did step up, but when Louth’s summer of 2015 ended in two crushing defeats, Kelly came in for some criticism for trying to do too much, too quickly.
Reid, however, feels that those young players have grown this past year. Jim McEnaney, James Stewart, James Califf have injected a bit of zest. They’re also part of a crew of players who had promising results against Meath in underage football. And beating Antrim in the Division 4 final provided another boost.
‘Some of the grief the team got last year was a little over the top, but some was warranted,’ he acknowleges. ‘We had a poor year last year but many lads were in their first season of Championship football. Winning at Croke Park was a huge thing; most of our players had never even played there before. So to have a game there and win it gave everyone a bit of a lift.’
McENANEY’S form, added to Ryan Burns’ sharpshooting, underlines the attacking talent within the Wee County. Given Meath can be fragile in defence, it gives the underdogs renewed hope today.
‘We’ve some talented young forwards... we have always prided ourselves in that we can produce some great attacking talent. And these young lads are following in that tradition. But we are disappointed with what we conceded to Carlow. We have tried to work on it.’
Defensive frailty has been Louth’s Achilles heel in recent years. With that in mind, former Derry boss Paddy Crozier was drafted in to assist Kelly and, after studying footage of Louth’s games from last year, he felt that a sweeper was needed.
Derek Maguire has been given that role in recent weeks, although Reid would offer a viable alternative if needed. And it surely will against the likes of Eamonn Wallace and Mickey Newman in the narrow confines of Parnell Park.
And the thing, even though they haven’t beaten their neighbours in the Championship for 42 years, Louth footballers always feel they can put it up to their local rivals.
‘When you look at Leinster, Dublin are so far ahead of everyone else, it is a big concern. It is worrying the level they are playing at,’ Reid says. ‘But every other county in the province believes they can beat the other. And this is our Leinster final. Louth would always believe we can be competitive against Meath, even if recent results haven’t shown that.’
This Louth team believes it can beat Meath and there was nothing that he saw, or heard, when in enemy territory last weekend, that would have changed Adrian Reid’s mind about that.