Ice cool minors keep the faith to reach semi-finals
WITH the Leaving Cert just around the corner, the mams and dads of Louth’s minor players sitting the state exams can rest easy.
These guys know how to handle pressure!
For the second game running Wayne Kierans’ young Red heroes held their cool in the most testing circumstances to dispatch a fancied Offaly outfit and reach a Leinster Championship semi-final.
At one stage in the first period they were staring down the barrel of a seven-point deficit, but there wasn’t a hint of panic.
Showing complete ‘faith’ in their team ethic and ability, they slowly reeled Offaly back in and, when the game was bubbling ferociously in the melting pot in the final quarter, it was the home side who showed nerves of steel.
An extra-time win over Laois in the previous round no doubt stood to Louth in that tense finale, and again it was the ice-cool John Gallagher who delivered the goods, kicking the last three points from dead balls to see it home.
But the John Mitchels man correctly declared afterwards that this was a team effort and holding Offaly to just three second-half points proved just as crucial as anything Louth produced in the attacking third.
That second-half containment seemed highly unlikely as the first period unfolded.
Offaly rattled the back of the home net inside a minute when the razor-sharp Cian Johnston latched onto a Conor Lynam pass and gave Alan McGauley no chance.
Gallagher opened Louth’s account from a free, but Offaly had racked up a further five points before the Reds scored again, racing into a 1-5 to 0-1 lead after just 12 minutes.
An inspirational long range effort from Conor Morgan and another fine score from Gallagher, from play, steadied the ship for Louth, but when Cian Farrell replied with a free and then a point from play, it seemed Offaly would take a bit of catching.
Half-time probably couldn’t have come quick enough for Wayne Kierans at that stage, but his players found their composure all on their own, kicking four points without reply to leave just that early Johnston goal between the sides.
Burly Cooley attacker Fergal Malone grabbed two of them, either side of a free from Gallagher and a superb score from captain Eoghan Callaghan.
Offaly did manage to stretch their lead back to four at the break, but it was Louth who adjourned with a spring in their step.
After the interval they repeated that four-point trick to draw level on 44 minutes.
First Gallagher, and then Morgan with another humdinger from distance, cut the gap to two in the space of 90 seconds and that really got the Louth players believing.
The effortless Ciaran Keenan stroked over a free to put the minimum between the sides, but Offaly will pinpoint the ensuing five-minute spell if they bother with a postmortem.
Three bad wides in quick succession seemed to drain any remnants of confidence and when Keenan won a free for Gallagher to convert, it must have felt like a hammer blow for the Faithful.
Louth lost the influential John O’Reilly to a black card and Offaly did manage to regain their lead when Ciaran Donnelly opened their second-half account in the 48th minute.
But the momentum was still with Louth and in Gallagher they had the perfect match-winner.
His first free was an epic 46m effort from the ground that sailed squarely over the backspot and two minutes later he repeated the feat from a ‘45’ to send Louth back into the lead.
To Offaly’s credit they managed to level matters up again two minutes from the end of normal-time time and it was certainly a collector’s item. Goalkeeper Jack McEvoy didn’t look overly confident when he ambled forward to take a ‘45’, and he duly played it short and backwards to a colleague. But McEvoy stayed forward and worked his way back into the move to kick a super effort from play.
Both sides were bracing themselves for extra-time, but in the second of two added minutes Gallagher clinched it with another free, this time from 30m and dead central.
Offaly had one last chance to force a draw, but Johnston, so assured in those hectic opening minutes, pulled his shot wide.
Dublin, Kildare and Wexford are in the pot for the semi-final draw, with the clashes pencilled in for July 4th.
LOUTH: Alan McGauley; Alan Connor, Philip Trainor, Dan Corcoran; Leonard Grey, Eoghan Callaghan 0-1, James O’Reilly; Liam Jackson, Conor Morgan 0-2; Gerry Garland, Ben Mooney, Fergal Malone 0-3; Keelan O’Neill, Ciaran Keenan 0-1f, John Gallagher 0-8 (5f, 1‘45’). Subs: Jack Murphy for G Garland (36), Conor Gillespie for B Mooney (46), Nicky Browne for J O’Reilly (46 BC), Shane Byrne for K O’Neill, Conor Nicholsan for C Morgan (60).
OFFALY: Jack McEvoy 0-1; Jack O’Brien 0-1, Luke Gavin Mangan, Eoin Dunne; Ciaran Donnelly 0-1, Edward Bennett, Adam Owens; Mark Newman, Sean Ibbotson; Sean Farrell 0-2, Conor Lynam 0-1, Billy Fogarty; Cian Johnston 1-2, Nathan Poland, Cian Farrell 0-3 (2f). Subs: David Reilly for B Fogarty (34), Ruairi O’Neill for M Newman (41), Kieran Hartnett for Farrell (51), Conor McCarthy for A Owens (54). REFEREE: John Hickey (Carlow).