Kelly fears Ryan could get ‘burned’ after late red card
COLIN Kelly fears Ryan Burns could suffer a similar fate to Diarmuid Connolly after a bizarre injury-time incident on Saturday night.
Louth finished the match with 12 men after Tommy Durnin and Patrick Reilly also saw red, and before all that Longford lost the superb Robbie Smyth to a double yellow.
But it was Burns’ injury-time dismissal for firing a ball at an umpire in what appeared to be an act of frustration that concerns Kelly.
It certainly didn’t help the Hunterstown attacker’s cause that he hit the target, catching the umpire in the thigh from about 20 yards away, and after consulting with his officials behind the hospital goal, Noel Mooney produced a straight red card.
‘Where it will end up frightens me when you see the incident with Diarmuid Connolly,’ Kelly said. ‘But that’s not [like] Ryan. Whatever, it was, frustration or whatever, he doesn’t do things like that.
‘Tommy’s and Paddy’s were just indiscipline, you just put your hand up and accept it. It’s part of being an inter-county player - if things aren’t going well you can’t throw the toys out of the pram. What it does is it sells out your teammates, but Tommy and Paddy know that. These things don’t happen when you’re going well, but when it’s not going well there’s frustration.’
Finishing with 12 men put the tin hat on a miserable evening for the Reds and Kelly didn’t try to come up with any excuses for the display.
‘There’s no hiding the fact that it wasn’t good enough, but it’s been like that for the last five or six weeks. On saying that we put a huge emphasis on winning games in the early part of the year in the O’Byrne Cup and National League and it’s caught up on us. That’s the reality and it’s not good enough. There’s no way to sugarcoat it, the performance wasn’t there, it was energyless.’
Asked whether it’s possible to challenge on two fronts, Kelly insisted that Louth are currently at a stage of their development where it’s extremely difficult to follow a strong National League campaign with a Championship run.
‘It’s not possible to do both when you start from where we came from, playing London in Darver last year. They’ve put in a massive effort over the last two seasons and coming from that to where they are now is worlds apart.
‘What we’ve proved is that we work really hard we can get results and play a really attractive brand of football, but what you saw out there today is a team that has probably just gone over the edge a little bit.
‘We were poor. Normally we’re tuned in and we work our asses off for the cause and they’re a great bunch, but just over the last five or six weeks something has been missing, that spark hasn’t been there in traning.
‘It’s not because they’re not trying or that we’re doing anything different, but it’s not the same team we saw in February, March and April. It’s difficult to sustain that over a long period when you don’t have that reservoir of fitness built up. But it’s not good enough. I’ve a broad enough pair of shoulder to take the flak and they can keep their heads down and get back to their clubs. They’re all still very good footballers, even if it hasn’t happened for them this last month.’
‘The spark has been missing since the Tipperary game in Croke Park, but when you set your goals and attain them, where do you go then? It is hard to re-focus.
‘It’s about building up a reservoir of fitness, strength and conditioning and all the things that go with it and it’s not something that will be put right in a one or two year period. But I have great praise for these lads they’ve put huge pride back in the Louth jersey,’ he added.