Gritty Minor win a major boost for Louth football
IT was an excellent weekend all around for Louth football.
During a break in Saturday afternoon’s thundery showers, Wayne Kieran’s minor team lined up against a fancied Offaly selection in the Gaelic Grounds.
It was Communion Day in the local area and we had a couple of neighbours celebrations to attend but I managed to steal away for an hour or so to catch the game.
However, by the time I reached my vantage point on the grass bank Louth were 1-3 to 0-1 in arrears.
Offaly were moving the ball exceptionally well in that opening quarter and their full forward line were causing us all sorts of bother. When the scoreline went out to 1-7 to 0-3 on 20 minutes I began to fear the worst.
In my rush to get to Drogheda on time I came away without my umbrella, so when it started spitting rain I’m not proud to admit I contemplated an early exit.
But then the revival happened. We tagged on four points in quick succession to their solitary score to finish the half just four point in arrears, 1-8 to 0-7. The second 30 minutes was as gutsy a display as I’ve witnessed from a Louth team in years.
We fought tooth and nail for every ball and I’m sure the Louth senior team members in the crowd took great heart for the following days encounter.
We drew level on several occasions only for Offaly to forge ahead again. With five minutes remaining we finally got our noses in front but a draw looked on the cards as they drew level on the stroke of full time.
However John Gallagher’s free taking was excellent all afternoon and he calmly slotted the winner in added time to seal a remarkable victory.
The way we came back from such a disastrous start is a credit to the players and the management team. Following that opening 20 minutes we kicked 12 of the remaining 16 scores and as you would expect there were great scenes of joy at the final whistle.
It’s an open draw now for the semi-finals where Dublin, Kildare and Wexford await.
I saw several of the senior squad at the minor game and my thoughts began to drift back to previous championship weekends of the past. I remembered how difficult it always was to get through the boredom of the Friday and Saturday before a big game. You just wanted to fast forward to Sunday afternoon as quickly as possible. I recognised the same tedious expressions on the lads faces.
Three o clock the following day came around quick enough and we were in Parnell Park early to see the players go through their warm ups.
Our seats didn’t afford us a great view of Louth’s routine but we had a birds-eye view of Wicklow’s.
The time and effort that goes into these pre-match warm-ups never cease to amaze me. While I appreciate that sports science has moved on considerably since my own playing days, I’m still not sure about the vast amounts of energy that are expended during all these sophisticated exercises and drills.
Wicklow had a large backroom team conducting the vast warm up proceedings and I just wondered was it all just a little over the top.
The cynic in me was questioning whether they all were merely justifying their seats on the bus? As you can probably tell, I was never really a great fan of extensive warm ups, or warm downs for that matter. I much preferred a few half paced cross field runs, a couple of short sharp sprints and getting my hands on three or four long Niall O’Donnell kick outs.
Despite all Wicklow’s prematch huffing and puffing, it was Louth who started the brighter and Eoin O Connor’s 10th minutes goal gave us a four point lead.
However Mark Kenny’s defence splitting run and goal gave the Garden County an unlikely lead as we approached the midway point of the half. It was nip and tuck for the next ten minutes or so before we finished the half strongly to lead by four at the break.
With the breeze at our backs for the second period I thought we would kick on for a comfortable victory but to their credit Wicklow dug in and deservedly got back on terms as we entered the final quarter.
Pointed efforts from Ryan Burns and subs Jim McEneaney and Declan Byrne had the margin out to three, but Wicklow refused to lie down and closed the margin to the bare minimum with three minutes remaining.
Eoin O Connor, who was now operating at midfield, put in a fantastic block to prevent a Wicklow leveller and we broke down field to stretch the lead to two.
A few more scores meant that Wicklow’s late goal chance, which was well saved by Craig Lynch, was of little consequence.
It was not a fantastic performance by any means but as I remarked to a former county colleague on leaving the Donnycarney grounds ‘any championship victory is a good one’. We’ll all be back again at the same venue in a fortnight’s time.
For this week’s Sideline Bet I fancy London at 2/1 to cause an upset against Leitrim in the Connacht Championship at Ruislip.