Dempsey counts his lucky stars

SEAN DEMPSEY felt this was going to be Laois’ day when Padraic Clancy’s hopeful punt bounced past goalkeeper Stuart Reynolds and into the Louth net after five minutes.

It was a cruel twist of fate for a netminder that has been nothing but dependable for his county all year but Dempsey’s hunch was proven right nine minutes from time.

Louth were midway through an unlikely scramble back from an 11-points deficit when Adrian Reid hared into the Laois penalty area only to be pushed in the back by the chasing Clancy.

Yet again, the Laois midfielder got the rub of the green. Referee Michael Duffy was perfectly positioned to see the offence but the Sligo man waved play on to the incredulity of Parnell Park.

“I didn’t see it right myself but a couple of people told me that they had a legitimate cause for a penalty,” said Dempsey afterwards. “That would have thrown the whatever among the pigeons.”

His counterpart was even more emphatic.

“It was conclusive,” said Eamonn McEneaney. “Even the Laois boys admitted it was a penalty when they were coming into the dressing rooms. Those are the breaks. We missed a few goal chances as well but then Laois did too.”

Louth were still able to reduce the arrears to just three but the damage had been done in the opening 50 minutes after which they trailed by eleven.

“That’s the disappointing thing, we didn’t play again,” said McEneaney. “You prepare a team and you try to send them out to win a championship game, but unfortunately we never got going in the first-half.”

That last 20 minutes took the shine off what had been until then a pretty impressive Laois performance and Dempsey admitted he was worried as the clock wound down.

So, was it simply a question of his side switching off?

“Maybe they just got on top of us in a few vital areas around the field as well. There is always a little bit of both in it. We are happy with the win.”

There were far more positives than negatives.

“We had a couple of good performances from fellas making their debuts. I thought Rory Stapleton did well at corner-back and Ger Reddin did well at centre-back. John O’Loughlin was out at wing-back for the first time and he did well too. All over the field we were working hard. It wasn’t always working for us but the work ethic was there.”

So was the luck when they needed it.