First Minor Final for Louth since 1971 appearance
PRIDE of place this week goes to the Louth Minor team who booked their place in the county’s first Leinster Minor Football Championship final since 1971 after pipping Wexford by 4-10 to 2-15 in an epic encounter at Wexford Park on Tuesday night.
Ardee’s Conor Gillespie and St Mochta’s Gerry Garland each weighed in with two goals apiece as Wayne Kierans side bridged a 46 year gap to set up a repeat of the 1971 decider against Dublin.
Just as they did in the previous round against Offaly, Louth did not make it easy on themselves. They gave their opponents a massive head start and trailed by 1-05 to 0-01 after 18 minutes. But these young lads a made of stern stuff and they recovered to trail by just two points at the break courtesy of a well taken Gillespie goal.
Two further goals from Garland shortly after the restart had Louth briefly in front but Wexford refused to lie down and a second goal from the impressive Sean Wall had the sides level entering the final ten minutes.
Previous Louth teams might have buckled under such pressure but this outfit are a different proposition altogether. They grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and forge in front with another Gillespie goal following a fantastic move.
Wexford narrowed the gap to the bare minimum in the closing stages but some heroic defending allowed the Wee County to hang on for a famous victory.
Following the post-match celebrations, Louth’s focus immediately turned to their final opponents and many were in attendance the following evening in Newbridge to see Dublin dethrone the 2015 and 2016 provincial champions Kildare by a margin of four points.
The Dubs will be raging hot favourites to land their 33rd Leinster title but do not underestimate the talent or spirit that exists in this Louth team.
Best wishes on Sunday
Best wishes to the players and management team on Sunday for what should be a wonderful occasion. And you just never know what might happen!!
Strong Ardee connections
I had the pleasure of chatting with Kevin Beahan in the immediate aftermath of the victory and he was over the moon with the result.
The 1957 All Ireland winner pointed ‘non-biasedly’ to the large Ardee contingent in the squad as one of the contributing factors as he recalled some previous underage successes.
He was a member of the Leinster winning 1951 side who beat Westmeath 3-09 to 2-05 in the decider, lining out at half forward alongside 1957 goalscorer Sean Cunningham. Kevin bagged 2-4 that day with Cunningham accounting for 0-3.
During that golden era for Louth football Kevin also recalled the 1953 Leinster winning side which contained his 1957 team mates Patsy Coleman and Sean Og Flood. Louth beat Kildare 1-6 to 0-6 in the final and completed the provincial double when beating Wexford 1-07 to 0-07 in the senior decider later in the day.
Although we contested the Leinster Minor final again in 1960 and 1971, the 1953 success remains our last at provincial level.
The 1953 team was Sean Og Flood (Young Irelands), Tom McArdle (Clans), Ken Smyth (Kilsaran), Paddy McEntee (St Dominics), Patsy Coleman (Ardee), John McArdle (Clans captain), Eamon McGrath (Cooley), Paddy Hallinan (St Dominics), Oliver Judge (Cuchulainns), Brendan Kierans (Cuchulainns), Jackie Reynolds (Lourdes Rangers), Jim Judge (Cuchulainns), Frank Murphy (Lourdes Rangers), Pat McMahon (Dowdallshill), Brian McDonald (Young Irelands).
European action in town
All tickets for Dundalk’s Champions League Second Qualifying Round first tie leg with Rosenborg at Oriel Park on Wednesday are now sold out.
Although the capacity of the Carrick Road venue is much reduced from last year’s home venue in Tallaght, it makes such a huge difference for everyone involved with the club to have the game played in Oriel. The Norwegian champions are odds on favourites to advance in the tie and come with an excellent European pedigree. They reached the Champions League quarter finals in 1997, losing narrowly to Juventus and were regulars in the Group Stages of the competition right up to 2008. Their exploits have been more modest since then but Dundalk still face a huge uphill task in repeating their 2106 European adventure. The game is live on RTE television for those without tickets,