A SEASON TO REMEMBER, AND FORGET, FOR ANDY
In the second instalment of a four-part series to mark the 10th anniversary of Louth’s infamous Leinster Championship campaign, John Savage talks to Andy McDonnell about what should have been a debut season beyond his wildest dreams.
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams WB Yeats
It’s the little things.
Bear-hugging a complete stranger at the final whistle. The pitch invasion.
The open-top bus on West Street and the Square. Singing. Reminiscing. Charlie out on the pitch. Watching it all unfold again on Sky+ three days later (and 10 years later).
Digging out the match programme to show the (disinterested) grandkids.
And, oh, that sweet, sweet Kildare performance...
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Andy McDonnell will never forget the summer of 2010 - but for all the wrong reasons.
The rising star of Louth football was just a teenager when he made his National League debut, mere months after recovering from a nasty leg break that could easily have ended his football career before it even started.
In what was also the manager’s debut season, Peter Fitzpatrick put his faith in the young attacker from the beginning, and stuck by him when the going got a bit tough.
McDonnell repaid that faith with some eye-catching displays in the National League, but it was the Leinster Championship quarter-final win over Kildare when the Newtown Blues star truly announced his arrival.
The description of McDonnell’s display in this newspaper, on this day ten years ago read: ‘Mattock Rangers duo Mark Brennan and Adrian Reid got through a mountain of work in defence, midfield and attack, but it was the young whippet, Andy McDonnell, who applied the touch of class. The
Newtown Blues man struggled to get to the pace of the game against Longford, but on this occasion he set the pace, dragging Brian Flanagan left and right and picking out his full-forwards with some delightful passes. His three-point haul was just the icing on the cake.’
If life was fair that Kildare display would have been up near the top of a long list of happy memories from that fateful summer.
Looking back a decade later, McDonnell can still appreciate the near perfection of the performance - individually and collectively - on that balmy Saturday night in Navan, but none of the memories can ever be separated from what came after.
‘I was taken off after half-time in the Longford game, and maybe deservedly so. I remember the heat in Portlaoise that day was just serious, it was scrappy enough and I couldn’t get into the game.
‘But in fairness to Fitzer he told me well before the Kildare game that I’d be starting again and that gave me a bit of confidence.
‘Kildare were a top team then under [Kieran] McGeeney and I just remember thinking they looked like robots out doing the warm-up. They all went down to one corner before throw-in and they all took a knee and I remember looking over at Colm Judge [as if] to say, what the hell is going on here.
‘They were big and physical too, but our plan was to get good early ball into Shane, JP and Judgie and it worked. They kept coming back at us, closing the gap, but I think Ray’s [Finnegan] goal just after half-time gave us the belief to go on and finish them off. Nobody expected much from us, but it was a great performance.’
So good in fact, that YouTube footage of the game that emerged during ‘lockdown’ prompted a debate about whether or not it was Louth’s best display of all time. That’s an argument that could rage forever, but one thing McDonnell can say with certainty is that it was the best performance he was involved in.
‘A lot of the lads had been involved in that Tyrone game in ‘06 and the Kildare Qualifier win in Newbridge the next year, I think it was. They were right up there too, but for me personally, yeah that was the best I was involved in. You have some bad days playing with Louth, I think I’ve played eight out of the last 11 seasons, but producing that kind of display and maintaining it for the full 70 minutes was special.
‘I remember the scenes afterwards and it was all a bit surreal. The team won a few things under Eamon McEneaney and to be fair he had that team well prepped. And in 2010 the main players were around 26-27, so
I THINK ONCE SINCE I THOUGHT HOW I COULD HAVE BEEN PART OF SOMETHING SO BIG. BUT LOOK, IT’S OVER AND DONE WITH NOW, WE GOT TO A LEINSTER FINAL AND I THINK EVERYONE KNOWS WE SHOULD HAVE WON IT, BUT MEATH RECEIVED THE DELANEY CUP.
at their peak really.
’It probably did need freshening up and Fitzer came in and sure he always says he’s the luckiest man alive!’
But a Leinster final appearance was still little more than a dream for Louth and until that Kildare game, there was very little evidence to suggest they could bridge that 50-year gap.
‘That same year we went up to Belfast and took an awful drubbing from Antrim. We were 10 points down after about 15 minutes. We finished the campaign off strongly against Offaly, but the Longford display was nothing to get excited about.
‘I think Fitzer bringing Peter McDonnell in was a big turning point. He was very knowledgeable and his training sessions were really good.’
However, the Kildare win was the catalyst for a sensational summer, giving Louth the confidence to overcome Westmeath in the semi-final at Croke Park.
But personally, McDonnell left HQ that day with mixed emotions.
‘I was taken off at half-time for Pepe [Paraic Smith] and to be honest I thought that’s it - if we get to the final I’ll be on the bench. You still want the team to win, but I remember afterwards crying in the bathroom because I was sure I wouldn’t play in the final. I thought I had been doing all right, but they decided to change it up by bringing Pepe in.’
But the manager had other ideas and perhaps sensing that the youngest member of his first-choice XV needed a wee lift, Fizter, being Fitzer, didn’t leave him stewing for long.
‘We were walking out for training the following Tuesday night and it’s three weeks out from the final and he just points at me and says: ‘Don’t worry Andy you’ll be starting the final.
‘Brian McEniff was in with us at that stage and you had Peter [McDonnell] and Martin [McQuillan], Gerry [Cumiskey], so we had great man-managers and then the experienced players like Paddy Keenan and my good pal Colm Judge kept you grounded.’
But no-one could have been prepared for the fallout after the Leinster final - that surreal afternoon tore up every script.
McDonnell tries not to dwell on it, but...
‘I think once since I thought how I could have been part of something so big. But look, it’s over and done with now, we got to a Leinster final and I think everyone knows we should have won it, but Meath received the Delaney Cup.
‘At club level we’ve done quite well since and we have a National League Division 3 medal.’
But what about that incident and Martin Sludden?
‘I don’t feel any ill-will, the referee was only doing his job, but I would like to know why he didn’t consult the umpires when he went in to tell them to put the flag up. That’s the thing I’d be asking myself. Even though I was right back beside it, I didn’t quite know how he’d got the ball over the line, but I knew something wasn’t right about it. The least I would have expected was the ref and umpires to talk about it for 30 seconds.
‘But we’ll never know. He’s never going to answer that.’
And so McDonnell, like the rest us, is left to ponder what might have been.
When Big Joe and Martin Sludden tag-teamed to deny Louth that precious Leinster title, it wasn’t just the Delaney Cup they snatched from the grasp of success-starved Louth folk.
They also trod on our dreams and forever tainted a summer of precious memories.
In the fullness of time, that may well leave the deepest scar.
That’s the big thing.