Louth clubs play it again in senior q-final ties
IT’S replay weekend in the Louth Senior Football Championship with second helpings being served up in three of the four quarter-finals.
And, barring more draws, the identity of the Senior Hurling and Junior Football finals should also be revealed by Sunday evening.
The final two rounds of the county leagues saw the race for Joe Ward parked up for the last three weeks, but Dreadnots/Naomh Mairtin, Dundalk Gaels/Sean O’Mahony’s and St Joseph’s/Geraldines all go again this weekend to determine who joins Newtown Blues in the last four.
Dreadnots and Naomh Mairtin served up easily the tie of the round last time out and the Jocks will fear they may have missed their chance, having led their south Louth rivals by five points in the closing stages of the drawn game.
Dreadnots somehow scrambled a second chance with a last-gasp goal from the most unlikely of sources when veteran defender Derek Shevlin stunned the Monasterboice deep in injury-time.
The Mairtins also squandered a handsome lead at the same stage last year against St Mary’s and they’ll be hoping lightning doesn’t strike twice as they lost out in the replay against the eventual finalists.
However, Dreadnots look set to be without talisman and Louth star Paraic Smith following his straight red card in the first game and he’ll be a big loss to Colm Donnelly’s side. What should be another scintillating contest throws in at 3.30 on Sunday in Drogheda.
While Dreadnots definitely got out of jail last time out, Dundalk Gaels left Dowdallshill with mixed emotions following their draw with reigning champions Sean O’Mahony’s.
Gaels needed two late points to rescue a draw in the end, but led by two at the interval and with O’Mahony’s not quite firing on all cylinders this summer, another close run contest is anticipated on Sunday evening in Haggardstown (7.00).
First up of the three is Geraldines and St Joseph’s, where again it would take a brave pundit to call a winner.
Alan Quigley earned the Joe’s a second bit of the cherry in what was their second draw of the campaign, but it was a tit-for-tat affair that could have gone either way.
The near-neighbours meet at the Grove on Saturday evening at 5.00, following the Senior Hurling play-off between St Fechin’s and Knockbridge who are fighting to face Naomh Moninne in the final.
In the junior grade the semi-final clash between Glyde Rangers and Roche Emmets looks like it could be a cracker, and while Glen Emmets will be fancied to account for Lannleire in the other semi-final, it too could be a close-run affair.