Boss O’Brien praises team’s spirit

LOUTH manager Philip O’Brien was a proud man following his side’s gutsy four-point victory over Tyrone in Darver on Sunday afternoon.

Philip, who is in his second year managing the Louth team, praised the spirit of his players who overcame Andrew McCrave’s sending off to pull off an unlikely victory late on.

‘When Andrew got sent off with twenty minutes to go I just thought here we go again, everything keeps going against us. But to our credit we really knuckled down and stuck to the gameplan. We didn’t let the heads go down and we worked really hard right until the final whistle.

‘That Louth team showed great heart today and that’s what really pleased me more than anything. Those last ten or fifteen minutes saw us under the cosh but we showed huge spirit and that’s what we’ve been trying to build here over the last year.

‘Louth have had no belief in themselves for the last while and now they’re getting that bit of belief and that makes a huge difference when you’re trying to win games. If you can get a bunch of lads and get them fit, get them to work hard and get them to believe in themselves they will match anyone,’ explained O’Brien.

‘It was great for us to get that win today. I knew the team had a big performance like that in them and it was just a matter of getting it out of them. It was probably the best panel I could pick from which hasn’t been the case for quite a while so that also definitely helped.

‘Tyrone gave us a couple of bad beatings last year but we’ve worked hard in pre-season this year and worked on a lot of things and we got our rewards today.

‘We also got a couple of new additions to our panel and they both went straight into the team today and did very well.

‘Neil and Gerry Arthur are from Clare but they are both currently working in Drogheda and were keen to play some hurling so we’ve brought them in and they have both contributed fantastically today.

‘We have to build on this now and we have a tough game next time up against Warwickshire who beat Tyrone last week. It’s all about using the league to build this squad for the championship. We want to build a right good team for the championship and give it a good rattle,’ stated the jubilant Louth manager.