Wicklow fall short
Barren spells prove costly against capable Louth outfit
TWO barren scoring spells for Wicklow at either end of this entertaining O’Byrne Shield final against Ger Brennan’s Louth allowed the home side ease out to a five-point victory in front of a decent crowd at Dowdallshill on Saturday afternoon.
It took Oisin McConville’s men 18 minutes to raise their first white flag with Louth galloping out to a 0-4 to 0-0 lead in that time, while the visitors also failed to trouble the scoreboard following Podge O’Toole’s fine goal 24 minutes into the second half that levelled the game at 1-13 to 2-10.
Crucially, immediately after that major by the Kiltegan man, Wicklow lost four of their own kickouts on the bounce with two Louth points resulting and from here the Wee County weren’t going to be caught, adding three more scores for what was a fully deserved win.
Despite the defeat, which won’t worry Wicklow manager Oisin McConville too much as he watched on from the bank having been handed a four-week ban following the Sligo game, there were plenty of positives for what was an experimental and young Wicklow side against Division 2 opposition, albeit drastically changed from the starting 15 that defeated Cork in their most recent league game.
There are the far more significant matters of Westmeath at home on February 18 in the third round of the Division 3 league followed by the trip to Ennis to face Clare the following week with two wins badly required if survival is to be achieved in their first year up out of the basement.
The positives from this competitive outing must include the performance of Kiltegan’s Cathal Fitzgerald in goals.
The netminder looked assured on the ball, emerged time and time again to support his defenders as Wicklow moved up the field and his kick-outs were excellent, finding his targets more often than not whether long or short and getting great distance in them, especially in the second half.
Liam O’Neill had a fine game for Wicklow in the well-appointed Dowdallshill GAA Club ground on the outskirts of Dundalk while it was also very heartening to see the return of Cillian McDonald and Podge O’Toole to the side and the very impressive showing from Eoin D’Arcy.
The marked difference between the sides over the course of the 70odd minutes was the effectiveness of the inside forwards and the supply to same with the starting six forwards for Louth bagging 1-12 of the 1-18 from play compared to Wicklow’s six attackers who started the game finishing with just three points from play.
Louth were radically more efficient and energetic when breaking at pace, galloping up the field and sending long seeking balls to the likes of Dylan McKeown and Kyle
McElroy while at the other end Wicklow probed and prodded for opportunities to get themselves into scoring positions, often clocking up 20 or 30 passes as they crisscrossed the field in front of a heavily populated Louth defence.
Wicklow’s first shot at goal arrived after 16 minutes when Conor Fee collected from Gavin Fogarty but the An Tóchar man’s effort tailed wide.
Cathal Fitzgerald had delivered a stunning long ball to Oisín McGraynor in the lead up.
Louth had pulled 0-4 to 0-0 ahead at that stage thanks to points from Kyle McElroy (two, one free), Peter McStravick (free) and Jay Hughes and they also had three of the four first-half wides in that same period.
Newtown’s Declan Doyle won the free that allowed Oisín McGraynor get the visitors off the mark after 18 minutes, but Louth should have had a goal a moment later but for the class defending of Eoin Murtagh who blocked
Jay Hughes as he unleashed a rocket from directly in front of the Wicklow goal.
Liam O’Neill had an excellent opening half and he made it 0-4 to 0-2 after 21 with Declan Doyle, Eoin Murtagh, Conor Fee and Cillian McDonald all involved.
Louth’s more straightforward approach was summed up nicely in the next score, Conor McCaul going long to Kyle McElroy and the corner-forward buying himself the time and space to drift over a lovely score. Simple football.
Cathal Fitzgerald’s subsequent kick-out broke off Jack Kirwan to Gavin Fogarty who fed Conor Fee. The An Tóchar attacker picked out Eoin D’Arcy and the ball was sailing between the posts to make it 0-5 to 03.
Wicklow were given a huge boost with 24 gone when a harmless looking effort from Oisín McGraynor wasn’t dealt with by Martin McEneaney in the Louth goal, the ball spilled and was handled on the ground by a defender.
A penalty to Wicklow.
Up stepped Eoin D’Arcy and the Tinahely man placed it superbly into the bottom corner for the lead for Wicklow at 1-3 to 0-5.
The lead was out to two when Conor Fee fired over after good work by Jack Treacy, Cillian McDonald, Liam O’Neill, Eoin Murtagh and Jack Kirwan but Louth finished the stronger with three unanswered points to leave it 0-8 to 1-4 at the break.
McConville’s men looked in all sorts of bother when Sean Marry finished to the back of the net 10 minutes into the second half to make it 1-11 to 1-6, Liam O’Neill and Gearoid Murphy with two excellent points for the visitors. The goal came from Wicklow losing possession on their own 45.
Credit to Wicklow, they were well up for this game, and they were well within reach of Louth by the 20th minute of the second half following fine efforts from Eoin D’Arcy (two frees), Oisin McGraynor and Fintan O’Shea to leave it 1-12 to 1-10 in favour of Ger Brennan’s side.
Dylan McKeown pushed Louth further ahead with a fine effort but when a galloping Podge O’Toole drove the ball past McEneaney for Wicklow’s second goal after 24 minutes to draw the sides level, you felt that Wicklow were in with a serious shout.
Alas, despite impressively accurate kick-outs from Fitzgerald, Wicklow just couldn’t win the ball from the next four restarts, and what momentum they had after the goal faded badly in the face of a very useful Louth outfit.
The Wee County dominated the last 10 minutes of the game as a tiring Wicklow challenge faded away.
Nevertheless, there are plenty of positives from this game, and lots of minutes for a host of young players that will surely stand to them in the coming weeks as the league progresses.