LOUTH SET UP LEINSTER DATE WITH ROYALS
COLIN Kelly would have no qualms about throwing Andy McDonnell back in at the deep end against Meath on Sunday week.
The midfielder is four weeks over knee surgery and would be a big boost for the Battle Royale at Parnell Park.
Kelly insists match fitness would not be an issue if the Blues’ man is pain free.
‘Andy is a different animal, he’s a Rolls Royce once he’s pain free so he’s nearly good to go once he’s up and running. He has a huge engine and his fitness levels are never in doubt so from that point of view you could see him if he’s pain free.
‘But the reality of it is he had surgery four weeks ago. Six weeks is a quick turnaround so I don’t know. Hopefully we can get boots on him this week and get him out on the training pitch but in terms of fitness he is a seriously fit fella and I don’t see that being beyond hi. It’s just whether he’s pain free and the injury allows him to play.’
Reflecting on Louth’s stopstart win over Wicklow, Kelly was just relieved to make it through to the quarter-finals and sidestep a potential banana skin.
‘We were flagging it up all week that it could be a fixture where we could become complacent and you don’t really know that until the game starts.
‘All our preparations were good, I felt our warm up was good, our training during the week was good. Yeah we had a few injury problems and we had a few lads that probably weren’t able to get involved but it’s about the win. When you take everything into context and how the 70 minutes played out I suppose it is good to just get down the road winning.’
While overall Louth lacked the spark they showed in the national League, Kelly felt his midfield pairing of Tommy Durnin and Eoin O’Connor helped to get the Reds out of jail, and if McDonnell doesn’t make it back in time for Meath, that could be his preferred partnership.
All our preparations were good, I felt our warm-up was good, our training during the week was good. Yeah we had a few injury problems and we had a few lads that probably weren’t able to get involved but it’s about the win.
‘I thought Eoin and Tommy looked like a rock solid pairing in the middle of the field. Two big strong lads and very capable and that freed up Stewart and you gave us options.’
Kelly conceded that a bright Louth start may have contributed to a sense of complacency, but whatever the cause he wasn’t happy with his side’s first-half display.
‘The start was really bright back to our national league level again. We were strong going forward we were getting through them pretty easy and got a few scores.
‘So to cough up the goal we coughed up was pretty poor and I then we gave them three or four simple scores.
‘When we came in and looked at the stats at half time our GPS numbers were down it was the lowest we had this year, including the O’Byrne Cup.
‘So it was way, way below any standard we had this year, but lucky enough we didn’t pay the price and we got out with the result.
‘It was probably a little unjust on Wicklow to lose by five points. They put in a trojan effort and we knew that effort was in them and the margin was a bit flattering for us.
‘The other side of that is, we always knew we had 19 or 20 scores in us and when you are putting that up it really pressurises the other team and that’s what probably got us over the line.’
With Jim McEneaney, Declan Byrne and Ger McSorley all coming off the bench to contribute vital scores, Kelly was happy with the strenght in depth again, but he would sooner have players like Byrne from the start.
‘The downside to that is they were all starters that were coming on but, for various reasons they weren’t in contention to start because they wouldn’t have got a lot of game time in their legs this past couple of weeks and they were carrying knocks. Add to that Andy (McDonnell), Derek (Maguire), Williams you could say missed today too.
‘All the intensity and drive that we had in the earlier part of the National League was nearly gone out of the team. So when you take all that into consideration, I suppose it was a decent performance. The lads coming in, the skill-set of the likes of Decky and Jim and those boys bring to it is really good.
‘I thought Ryan’s free taking today was exceptional but probably a little bit off it from play. Pepe didn’t have one of his better games, but then these guys come in and they kick the scores to get you over the line.
‘I thought Tommy (Durnin) and Eoin (O’Connor) were immense in the middle of the field and Bevan’ is Bevan. So there were stand-out performances that we’d expect from guys and there was probably guys a little bit below par for some unknown reason. But it is about two weeks now and it’s trying to piece it together again for Meath here.’