Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Mcgrath’s still keen on top job
PETE MCGRATH says his disappointing 10 month experience with Louth has not even slightly diminished his enthusiasm for football.
The Wee County lost all seven League games and their season was ended by defeats to fellow Division Four sides Carlow and then Leitrim.
“Admittedly it was a disappointing League and Championship for Louth, but despite that experience my enthusiasm and love for managing teams is still as strong as it ever was,” said Mcgrath, who steered
Down to All-ireland senior success in 1991 and 1994.
“In fact, my energy levels are still quite high, and when looking after teams is such a massive part of your life for such a long period of time it’s certainly not something you are going to walk away from in a hurry.
“If a county or club feel you’ve something to offer, they will approach you, and ask what your situation is.
“It’s not like you can put an advertisement in a newspaper and say ‘here’s my phone number’,” added Mcgrath, whose native county are without a manager after Eamonn Burns left the post.
Reflecting on his involvement with Louth, Mcgrath, who previously managed Fermanagh, said: “It was common knowledge in Louth that the team was going to struggle in Division Two.
“A major setback for us was that we were always struggling to have a credible number of players at our training sessions, due to a combination of work commitments, injuries, exams etc. As well, over the course of the year we haemorrhaged 16 players for a variety of reasons.”