Louth left red-faced by Leinster minnows
WHERE to now?
That’s a question Louth supporters have grown all too familiar with over the years, but the soul searching and recriminations will kick off in earnest again this week in the wake of an 11-point Sunday roasting by Carlow in Portlaoise.
Relegation to the bottom rung of the National League and a 23-point Qualifier drubbing from Tipperary were justifiably dubbed Louth’s ‘lowest ebb’ in 2015, but seven straight league defeats and a Championship hammering by one of Leinster’s genuine minnows runs that annus horribilis pretty damn close.
The Reds and new manager Pete McGrath were by-and-large afforded the benefit of the doubt
Carlow Louth 2-17 0-12
this spring, despite those seven defeats and relegation back to Division 3.
After a winter of high player turnover, long-term injuries to key forwards and the installation of a new management team, the general consensus was that they were punching way above their weight in Division 2, and that the summer would be a more suitable time to take stock and run the rule over Pete McGrath’s first season at the helm.
Ironically, the Down legend may have made his own position untenable - or at the very least awkward - by questioning his decision to take the job in the first place, declaring that, while he didn’t regret the move, he ‘has made better decisions in life’.
It was a bizarre admission at the end of a surreal day in O’Moore Park and the Louth boss proceeded to compound matters by appearing to lay the blame squarely at the feet of his players on The Sunday Game.
He bemoaned the lack of leaders in the O’Moore Park cauldron, but leadership comes from the top and one of the most striking elements of Sunday’s defeat was the similarity it bore to all of Louth’s league defeats.
Hunger, discipline and leadership are obviously important ingredients at all levels of the game, but Louth’s tactical naivety was again plain for all to see as Carlow soaked up what largely amounted to huffing and puffing and picked the Reds off quite comfortably at the other end.
As the contest unfolded it became clear that the Louth management had learned precious little from those crushing league defeats, although there was a chink of light in the opening half.
For 27-odd minutes Louth looked like they had put that dreadful spring campaign firmly behind them, but the next 40plus minutes were painstakingly familiar as Carlow took complete control of proceedings and kicked 2-10 to Louth’s 0-3 to run out easy winners.
Louth were by no means the finished article in the opening half-hour, but they were marginally the better side.
The teams were level three times in the opening quarter as Declan Byrne and William Woods kicked a couple of fine scores for the Reds, with Paul Broderick and Sean Murphy doing likewise for Carlow.
But three points in two minutes from Tommy Durnin, Ryan Burns and Gerard McSorley edged Louth 0-7 to 0-4 in front and they looked like they might even kick on from there.
A few old habits lingered, like coughing up cheap turnovers in the final third and giving away even cheaper frees in their defensive third, but overall the signs were positive.
However, like most of Louth’s Division 2 opponents this spring, it took only a modest injection of pace and power to swing the momentum in Carlow’s favour.
Sean Murphy and Eoghan Ruth got on top at midfield and Paul Broderick and Darragh Foley were a real handful for the Louth defence, but when the crossbar came to Louth’s rescue to deny Sean Murphy a wonder-goal and Gerard McSorley lofted over his third point of the half to make it 0-9 to 0-7, Louth fans would have been more than happy with their lot.
But the tide seemed to turn almost in an instant.
Carlow poured forward in the final moments of the half and were rewarded with the last three scores, making it 0-10 to 0-9 at the break.
But if those late first-half exchanges were a subtle warning, the alarm bells were well and truly ringing after the interval.
Carlow very nearly gifted Louth a goal when a Robbie Molloy kick-out went awry, but William Woods couldn’t pull off an attempted chip of the back-tracking Rathvilly man.
But far from inspiring Louth, that flashpoint seemed to drive