SPORT
COLIN Kelly isn’t expecting Andy McDonnell or Jim McEneaney to return from injury in time for Sunday’s visit of Antrim as Louth bid for a fourth National League fourth win on the trot.
Both players sat out last Sunday’s win over Offaly with knee and ankle injuries resepctively, but the good news is that neither will be out long-term, with a scan on McDonnell’s knee revealing minimal damage.
‘Jim has a bad turn on his ankle and it’s fairly swollen, so he’s probably a couple of weeks away,’ Kelly revealed. ‘Andy had a scan on his knee and he has a nick on the cartilage. We were given three to five weeks, but depending on how good a healer he is, he could be back for the Armagh match. We definitely won’t have him for Antrim.’
It’s fair to say Louth didn’t really miss the star duo in Tullamore as Eoin O’Connor and Declan Byrne slotted seamlessly into the team, helping the Reds to an impressive five-point win in appalling conditions.
‘It’s testament to the squad that Decy and Eoin came in and kicked five points between them. Decky maybe doesn’t have the pace Andy has, but he has another aspect to his game in that his shooting is superb. Eoin was excellent up front and he’s given Jim something to think about too.’
Louth laid the groundwork for victory in the opening half against a gale force wind, with a Ryan Burns double strike ensuring they turned around at the interval with a four-point lead.
‘It was no easy task to put ourselves in the position we did,’ Kelly continued. ‘I thought some of our play was excellent and our handling was really good in difficult conditions. We turned it over a few times offensively and we missed a one-on-one, but overall to put that score up and put ourselves in that position at half-time was very pleasing.
‘People were talking about Offaly’s three-year unbeaten home record in the national league, but as I said during the week, they haven’t played anyone as good as us. We knew coming down that if we did our stuff it would be good enough to get the win.
‘We got what we wanted from the game and it’s a big plus for our score difference too.’
The only negative from Kelly’s point of view was Louth’s failure to push on after the break. They allowed Offaly to close the gap to two points at one stage, before eventually pulling clear in the closing stages.
‘The first half of the second half was disappointing. Our ball retention was poor and we were trying to force things a bit. We were a bit lethargic and it looked a bit casual. Luckily enough every time they got a score we responded to keep that three or four points gap.
‘People like Liam Dullaghan, Derek Maguire, Patrick Reilly were putting in big tackles and these guys are growing in stature all the time.’
Kelly’s squad are facing into a testing period with Louth’s U-21 re-fixture against Wicklow going ahead in Baltinglass on Wednesday night (7.30). From Sunday’s 26-man panel Ryan Burns, Kevin Carr, Sam Mulroy and Ross Nally will be involved and should they win Eugene Judge’s side will be out again against Laois seven days later.
Barring a change of plan by the CCC, Kelly will have to release his all of his players back to their clubs for the first round of the leagues on March 12th, which will be followed by the Armagh, Tipperary and Sligo games on successive Sundays.
For the moent though the Reds’ chief is sticking to the old one-game-at-a-time mantra and he’s not looking beyond Antrim.
‘Antrim is going to be tough. It has never been easy for Louth to beat Antrim. We did well against them last year so it’s not being negative, but all of a sudden a win next Sunday puts us in a seriously commanding position. It would leave us on eight points with a huge score difference. So we can’t look any further than that. It’s not about looking at anyone else in the division. We have to look at ourselves and once things are right inside the four walls of our dressing, we’re doing the right things.
‘We’ve played eight games since the start of the year and only lost one and I think we were responsible for losing that one. It’s been a long time since we lost a National League match, you have to go back to Leitrim last year, so this group doesn’t know what it’s like to lose a lot of games. That’s a great place to be and we’ll knuckle down during the week and focus on Antrim next Sunday in Drogheda.’