London searching for their first ever win over Louth

SUNDAY’S clash with London may be a novel pairing for both camps, but it’s not the first time the sides have met in the All-Ireland Championship.

According to the meticulous records of the ever-reliable Paddy Clarke (pictured), Louth beat the Exiles en route to their first irst All-Ireland nd win in 1910 and d they repeated the trick three years later. ter.

The former ormer Louth bossoss notesnotes:

‘Prior to the Leinster finals of 1910 and 1913 Leinster Council nominated one of the finalists (Louth in both cases) to play London in the All-Ireland semi-final.

‘In 1910 Louth beat London and then beat Dublin by 0-3 to 0-0 in the Leinster final and advanced to the All-Ireland Final where they received a walk-over from Kerry.

‘In 1913, however, after beating London they lost the Leinster final to Wexford who advanced to play Kerry in the All-Ireland final.’

The counties would not meet against for a whopping 85 years, but would lock horns five times in the next 18 season, primarily in Division 2A of the National League.

For much of the late nineties and early noughties the bottom 16 teams in the National League were split into two divisions of equal enough standing.

But in five attempts the Exiles never managed to pull off a shock against the Reds.

Louth’s two trips to Ruslip resulted in 0-12 to 0-4 and 0-16 to 1-4 victories in 1998 and 2003 respectively, which sandwiched comfortable home wins, 1-19 to to 2-8 in 2000 (Drogheda) and 2-19 to 0-1 (Castlebellingham) in 2002.

In fact the most recent meeting in Division 4 in 2016 was the closest London came to pulling off a shock, pushing the Reds all the way in a 2-9 to 0-9 defeat.

Louth went on to win promotion that year and followed it up with another jump up the grades to Division 2 in 2017.