Louth earn last-gasp victory over Offaly
ALLIANZ FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION 3
IT was the most dramatic and surreal finish to a Louth match since big Joe threw...ah hell, you know the rest!
But this time there was nothing untoward about the winning goal - it was just downright bizarre.
With just seconds remaining of five added minutes Louth trailed Offaly by a point in a crucial contest between two sides widely tipped for a relegation scrap.
With a gale force wind on their backs Louth spent most of the second-half camped in the home side’s final third, but all the frenetic pressing and closing down of Offaly’s short kick-outs still looked to be in vain.
However, one last press from Ross Nally saw the Newtown Blues hitman intercept yet another short kick-out from Paddy Dunican.
The ball squirmed loose, but with three defenders well placed to deal with the threat, Offaly should have cleared their lines.
Inexplicably, though, Declan Hogan, pulled on the loose ball, driving a low finish to his own net when he appeared to have time to bend down and pick it up. A course of action that at the very least would have drawn contact and most probably a foul.
You would need a heart of stone not to feel sorry for the corner back, but Louth didn’t care as 15 seconds later they were celebrating the most dramatic of victories.
Perched in one of the highest vantage points in O’Connor Park, normally reserved for TV cameras, Wayne Kierans must have felt like he was on top of the world.
He’ll be hoping to hit even greater heights during his spell as Louth boss, of course, but the euphoria of winning a really tight game with a last-minute goal is hard to top.
And the Division 2 league table spells out the importance of the victory in black and white, as it propelled Louth into third spot on four points, three ahead of Offaly and four clear of bottom side Sligo, who they play next in Drogheda.
A win over the Yeats County on Sunday week should be enough to banish any threat of relegation, Longford Laois Louth Down Carlow Westmeath Offaly Sligo 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 7 9 5 -3 2 0 -3 -17 5 4 4 4 3 3 1 0
and from that se-secure footing the Reds would have very little to lose heading into a tough, but enticing final three games against Carlow, Westmeath and Down.
It’s a strong, and possibly unexpected, position for the Reds to be in, but Kierans does have issues to address over the next few weeks.
For one, the new boss will be serving a touchline ban for the rest of the campaign, following a 12-week suspension for remonstrating too vigorously with a linesman during the opening-round defeat to Longford.
He’ll be back in time for the Championship clash with Wexford on May 12th, but will miss at least five league games, including Sunday’s outing, in the meantime.
Hence his posting in the TV gantry, and from that bird’s eye view the manager witnessed his team being reduced to 14-men for the third game in a row as Conor Early received his marching orders on a straight red card following an off-the-ball incident in the 44th minute.
Also for the third game on the bounce, Louth were reduced to 13-men at various stages as the team’s tendency to pick up black cards, many of which have been admittedly quite harsh, continued.
Early’s pitch-time has been cut short in all three games due to red and black cards, but a now mandatory suspension takes what might have been a tough decision out of Kierans’ hands.
There was some logic to Liam Kelleher’s assertion that the card epidemic is more down to inexpe- riencerience and over-enthusiasm than a widespread discipline problem, but either way it’s something manmanagementagement will want to nip in the bud before it does prove costly.
Arguably, those cards picked up in the opening game against LongLongfordford have cost the Reds a two-point lead at the top of the table.
All that said, Kierans will undoubtedlydoubtedly be delighted with the resilience his team showed in the face of adversity on Sunday.
The had to dig deep to stay within five points of their hosts at the break, 2-5 to 1-3, with a wellworked Ciaran Downey goal on the half-hour mark proving crucial by the finish.
At the other end Anton Sullivan’slivan’s strike stemmed from an errant Anthony Williams free-kick deep inside the danger zone, while Bevan Duffy was desperately unlucky to see his brilliant blockdown land straight at the feet of Shane Horan, who fired home from close range.
Despite assuming the advantage of a stiffening wind after the break, Louth didn’t really start to close the gap until the final quarter and even with just under 10 minutes of normal-time remaining they still trailed by four, 2-7 to 1-6.
Offaly’s attempts at time-wasting certainly didn’t help the Reds as they tried to build up a bit of late momentum, but the home side would eventually pay for trying to run the clock down as James Bermingham added five extra minutes.
And Louth made the most of every second as Ruairi Moore and Tommy Durnin closed the gap to a point before Hogan’s last-gasp intervention.
LOUTH: Fergal Sheekey; Fergal Donohoe, Emmet Carolan, James Craven; Anthony Williams, Bevan Duffy, John Clutterbuck; Tommy Durnin 0-2 (1f), Conor Early; Conor Branigan, Ciarán Downey 1-0, Conall McKeever; Andy McDonnell, Sam Mulroy 0-6 (4f, 1’45’), Declan Byrne. Subs: Eoghan Duffy 0-1 for McDonnell (56), Jim McEneaney for Downey (59), Ross Nally for Byrne (62), James Califf for Branigan (63), Rúairí Moore 0-1 for McKeever (72).
OFFALY: Paddy Dunican; Declan Hogan 1-0 (own goal), Eoin Rigney, David Dempsey; Joseph O’Connor, Paul McConway, Cian Donohoe; Cathal Mangan, Johnny Moloney; Shane Horan 1-0, Peter Cunningham 0-2f, Niall Darby 0-1; Bernard Allen 0-5 (3f), Anton Sullivan 1-0, Rúairí McNamee. Subs: Niall McNamee for Rúairí McNamee (54), Eoin Carroll for Donohoe (59), Dan Molloy for Mangan (64), Aaron Leavy for Moloney (74).
REFEREE: James Bermingham (Cork). Pics: Tom O’Hanlon