Clinical Louth deliver best display under Kelly

LOUTH opened their Division 3 campaign in splendid fashion with a dominant twelve-point win in Portlaoise on Saturday night.

Right from the throw-in Colin Kelly’s side were on the front foot and set the platform for victory by completely outplaying their opponents in the opening 20 minutes.

With the help of a well-worked first-half goal from the in-form Pepe Smith Louth led at one stage by 1-7 to 0-2 before Laois briefly rallied to close the gap to five at the break.

The home side needed a strong start to the second period to have any chance of reeling in the men in red, but that fightback never materialised.

It was Louth who pushed on with some excellent points and Andy McDonnell’s 51st minute goal combined with Colm Begley’s sending off finished the game as a contest long before the final whistle.

The players were clinical in front of goal during that opening 20-minute period and clearly learned from their mistakes against Dublin the previous weekend.

Despite our poor showing in the O Byrne Cup final I still had every confidence that we would put in a big performance against Laois on the open expanses of O’Moore Park.

And when I heard Laois would be without several regulars, including the influential John O Loughlin, I thought our odds of 15/4 were extremely favourable.

Our current defensive setup and counter-attacking style of play is best suited to the bigger pitch and better quality of surface. This was clearly demonstrated in recent weeks by our contrasting performances in Navan and Drogheda.

It’s slightly ironic but at the moment we could actually be better off playing away from the Gaelic Grounds. As it stands though we have four home league games coming up in Drogheda, next Sunday v Longford followed by Antrim, Armagh and Sligo. Sandwiched in between are trips to Offaly and Tipperary.

This performance was on a par with the Meath game two weeks ago and was possibly the team’s best competitive display under Colin Kelly.

It was also the first time since 2006 that we’ve won our opening league match away from home. That was against Cavan in Breffni Park and you might remember we went all the way to winning the Division 2 title that season beating Donegal in the final.

Management will be delighted with this emphatic response following on from the disappointing O’Byrne Cup final display and will be hoping for more of the same against Longford next weekend. The midlanders will be no pushovers however following their own opening day win over Offaly. IRELAND‘S hopes of a Grand Slam lay in tatters after a sobering 27-22 defeat at the hands of Scotland in Murrayfield. Joe Schmidt’s side were ‘caught cold’ in a frustrating opening 40 minutes, unable to slow up Scottish ball and conceding three converted tries.

We failed to take advantage of our obvious superiority, especially at scrum time and made it all too easy for the opposition to defend against us.

To our credit we did get ourselves back into the game and entered the final quarter leading 22-21 but two late Greig Laidlaw penalties sealed a deserved home win. FINALLY I sat up late last night in great anticipation to watch Superbowl LI (that’s 51 to the non-Romans among you).

I enjoy watching the New England Patriots and in particular their quarterback Tom Brady. However the Atlanta Falcons completely bossed the first two quarters and deservedly led by 21-0 at the break.

With the Patriots misfiring and the 39 year old Brady a little off colour I decided to call it a night at 1am and headed to the scratcher.

Not even the prospects of Lady Gaga’s half time show could keep me awake such was the Falcons ascendency. But before I nestled down to begin counting sheep, I messaged my NFL fan brother. ‘Gone to bed. Game over’.

This was a major schoolboy error. Anybody who enjoys a healthy and competitive sibling rivalry will understand.

First thing Monday, with great satisfaction and on more than one occasion, my older brother informed me that I had just missed the greatest Superbowl in history. Lesson learned. Every day is a school day! OUR first Sideline Bet of 2017 got off to a positive start with €75 coming our way courtesy of Louth’s generous odds in Portlaoise. I’d like to thank Barry O Brien and Quay Sports (Peter Kingston and Kingbet) for their continued support in sponsoring our weekly charity bet.