Louth have come a long way since last trip to Tipp

THE clocks moved forward at the weekend heralding the beginning of a new season and they carried the Louth senior football team along with them.

The transformation from winter time to summer time is always most welcome especially when it arrives with such glorious sunshine.

The extra hour of daylight on Sunday evening was very noticeable and I’m sure all those who made the journey to Thurles enjoyed the long drive home that little bit more than usual.

Our previous visit to the Premier county in July 2015 was not a pleasant one. We suffered one of our heaviest ever championship defeats that afternoon when Tipp beat us out the gate in every position on the park in a 3-21 to 0-07 mauling.

That game was widely recognised as our lowest point for arguably 30 or 40 years and you could see the hurt on Wee County supporters’ faces as they exited the ground.

I recall almost running down the road to my car outside Semple Stadium in a bid to get out of the place as quick as possible.

That hasty retreat from the town where the association was founded was as swift as I could make it and mine wasn’t the only LH car speeding back up the M7 that evening.

Colin Kelly and his management team shipped most of the blame in the immediate aftermath and many questioned the manager’s credentials and suitability for the role.

The remainder of that summer can’t have been easy for them as they went about their business of attending club championship games around the county. I’m a friend of Colin’s and I witnessed some of the derisory looks and comments he received at some of those games.

In fairness to him, he took it on the chin, rolled up his sleeves and prepared the panel as best he could for the 2016 campaign in Division 4.

We were only third or fourth favourites to come straight back up but lots of hard work and no mean skill meant promotion was secured with one game to spare.

The championship performances against Carlow and Meath were acceptable but they did not suggest we were ready to climb the next rung of the National League ladder.

In fact the bookies had us as the clear favourites in the division to go straight back down, that despite our strong pre-season O’Byrne Cup showing.

Most supporters I spoke to would have been happy to consolidate our position in the third tier for 2017 and build for the future but I saw something very encouraging in that defeat of Meath in Navan which made me sit up and take notice.

There was a bit of steel in our performance that January afternoon that suggested this bunch of lads meant business.

It was evident again in Portlaoise a few weeks later when we comfortably disposed of the home side and we continued in that same vein in each of our performances since.

The Armagh result, much like the Leitrim game last season, was a blip, but the important thing was that we learned from our mistakes and came back stronger.

Amazingly another promotion has been achieved, and again with a game to spare. We are still not equipped to break into the top tier of county football but what we are now is competitive with 25 or 26 other counties.

Players, management, backroom staff and all involved with the squad at the moment deserve great credit for their application and hard work over the last 18 months. It seemed an impossible task back then to get from where we were to where we are now. Well done to all. FINALLY a word for Seamus Coleman who suffered a horrific leg break on Friday night against Wales in our World Cup Qualifier at the Aviva. The Killybegs man is a super right back, possibly the best in the Premier League, but it’s his attitude and application that sets him apart from the rest.

In a world where hissy fits and prima donna type behaviour are the norm Coleman just gets about his business of playing football.

Since his elevation to Ireland captain during the Euros he has grown as a player for both club and country and both sides will sorely miss his influence in the months ahead. The injury looked a pretty bad one and we can only hope that the Everton man can make a full recovery and get back to full fitness as soon as possible. THE 0-0 scoreline added another €40 to our charity total. This week we go for Monaghan to end Dublin’s long unbeaten run at 3/1 in Clones.