Kierans hails another ‘epic’ display from Louth

WINNING the close ones has so often been Louth’s Achilles heel at all levels of the game, so emerging with another onepoint victory en route to a Leinster semi-final made Saturday’s victory all the sweeter for Wayne Kierans.

‘No-one can say we can’t win tight games, we’ve won two in a row now and it’s really positive,’ said the Louth minor manager. ‘You keep going to last year when it went against us, so to get over the line twice this year is unbelievable.’

Kierans feared the worst as Louth made a terrible start, but he paid tribute to his young players for their second-half display.

‘The word I used in Laois was an ‘epic’ game and I don’t think that was anything short of an epic game either. It was some second-half and it’s a really good feeling to keep the campaign alive.

‘I think it was 42 seconds when we conceded the goal and we were slipping and sliding and we were just very tentative. The conditions maybe played a part, but we didn’t start well. But in the second-half we came out and really pinned them back and I don’t think they got down the field for a long period. It was point for point then and obviously anyone can win it, so I was just relieved to hear the final whistle.’

Even before half-time Kierans’ troops made some headway and that turned out to be crucail in the end.

‘Considering the start and the fact that we didn’t play all that well, it was a blessing to go in just four points down at half-time. But the start of the second-half really set the tone for the rest of the game. I know it was nip-and-tuck at the end, but we started the second-half really well.

‘I thought we could create a goal chance but we never really did so some of the point-scoring was brilliant and John’s frees were superb.’

Kierans didn’t need to tell his players what was at stake at half-time.

‘They knew themselves we had to perform better than the first-half. It was tentative, we were standing off them and we didn’t pressure them. We’re conditioned to press, so that was disappointing. We kicked some good scores in the first-half and that was the only saving grace.

‘There were a few individuals that stepped up because of the poor first-half display and at half-time you just have to let them know.

‘We handled them a lot better in the second-half by cutting the supply off at source and they didn’t really get it up to their full forward line as much in the second-half.’

For a brief moment Kierans was anticipating another batch of extra-time, but his players pulled through and he tipped them to be in tip-top shape for the semi-final at the start of July.

‘When I saw Conor Morgan coming off I asked Mick Fanning our physio if he could go back on for extra-time. I don’t think he would have been able to, but thankfully it didn’t matter.

‘We’ve a long break to the semi-final now and exams to get over, but we’ll do that and make sure we’re ready to go for whoever we get in the semi-final.’