MIXED FORTUNES FOR GAA TEAMS
COLIN Kelly would have been forgiven for feeling a little smug with himself leaving O’Moore Park on Saturday night after Louth trounced Laois in front of the TV cameras, but the manager moved quickly to put a lid on expectations.
‘We got off to a great start in the National League and that’s all it is,’ he declared.
‘Inside the dressing room we won’t be talking about anything other than Longford. You can talk about goals and targets, long term and short term goals, personal goals...but there’s only one goal - win your games. If you win enough it looks after itself, if you lose too many you’re at the other end of the table. So it’s just about Longford now. If you beat them you have four points, but a couple of years ago we had four points from three games and the wheels came off in Sligo.’
That said, Kelly was delighted with his teams’ display in Portlaoise and, in particular, the manner in which they bounced back from a disappointing O’Byrne Cup final defeat to Dublin.
‘Overall our performances in the O’Byrne Cup were pleasing and tonight the things we spoke about that weren’t right in the O’Byrne Cup we got right.
‘We played the same way against Dublin for 35 minutes but didn’t get the scores up and that left us chasing the game. So we spoke about that during the week, one of the key targets was to be in front at half-time and thankfully that’s the way it worked out.
‘Some of the lads were excellent and we worked a lot during the week, so it is pleasing.
‘The transformation is happening and it’s slowly progressing. It’s not where it needs to be, there’s still a lot of work in progress, but you can see it tonight, a lot of fellas have started to blossom.
‘Anthony Williams was exceptional, Paddy Reilly made Donie Kingston look average. Craig Lynch’s kickouts were outstanding and Padraig Rath and Kevin Carr stood out.
‘The two guys in midfield were great and Liam Dullaghan came in for his first match in this environment at centre back and he wasn’t found wanting. Ruairi Moore came in for Conall McKeever and I thought he was outstanding. Paraic Smith kicked 1-4 on top of his five points last Sunday.
‘So overall it’s great and as I’ve said all along it’s a pleasure to work with these lads.’
However, after dishing out the richly deserved plaudits, Kelly reiterated the need to keep progressing.
‘At the end of the day it’s one result and if we don’t consolidate it and back it up with a performance next Sunday then we can start analysing if we really are progressing. But at the minute every question we ask of them they answer.’
With game being broadcast live on eir Sport Louth’s performance and style of football came in for some high praise.
‘We want the ball moving quickly in the middle third. People talk about that word transition and what we want is to move the ball through that middle third as quick as possible. We have small players in stature but big in heart.
‘We spoke about score difference because last year eight points got you promoted in this division. We spoke about how important it was to not let a team get away from you if you’re heading for a defeat and, it’s important on a night like tonight that you keep pushing for more scores.’
It’s another short turnaround as Louth play their seventh game in six weeks, but Kelly isn’t worried.
‘Games breed confidence if you’re winning. We’ve played six and won five and arguably should have won six. I know it was nine points but I felt it was in our own hands. You can train intensely in Darver for two hours or play a match on a Sunday, so what we’ve done during the week is rest lads and work on skillsets. We did a lot of unopposed shooting this week and it seems to have worked.
‘Again we’ll take it easy on Monday and start looking at Longford on Wednesday and Friday. It’s about managing the workload and the only problem is there are guys in need of game time because you want to keep the whole squad at a similar level. The squad so tight now,’ he added.