Fitzpatrick content as Louth advance

IT certainly wasn’t a game for the ages or anything like that but Louth boss Peter Fitzpatrick cared not a jot, satisfied that his side had realised their goal.

The target was a victory, by any means, and that was achieved but there is no doubt that the Wee County men will have to be a lot better in a fortnight when they cross swords with Kildare in the quarter-final.

Longford shot 14 wides, many of them from good opportunities but in truth, Louth were probably the more deserving winners, dominating much of the possession thanks to the ball-winning of captain, Paddy Keenan, and Brian White.

“The main thing was the result” said Fitzpatrick. “I didn’t care if it was one point or 10 points, all we wanted to do was win the game and get a crack at Kildare.

“I thought it was an all-round performance. The goal before half time was a very important score. In fairness to Longford, they came back and got a goal but I knew the calibre of the Louth team.

“They’re a young, fit team and I knew they’d come back again. With the four-point cushion, we knew Longford would have to go for goals and we held on.”

It wasn’t pretty though and the first half in particular was a dreadful, error-strewn affair.

It took almost the last action of the half to separate the teams, when Louth full-forward Shane Lennon imperiously caught a long delivery from Keenan, before turning and dispatching to the net.

Fitzpatrick’s charges had the better of the exchanges in the opening quarter, with points from Keenan, JP Rooney, Colm Judge and Brian White (free) pushing them three points clear, Seán McCormack providing the only response.

Despite struggling at midfield, Longford gradually clawed back into proceedings, with Paddy Dowd’s strength, and McCormack’s movement causing some problems to the Louth defence.

Dowd and Mulligan reduced the margin to the minimum and though White slotted a free and Colm Judge notched up a point, a brace from Francis McGee and McCormack’s third score had the sides level.

But Lennon then struck the game’s critical score to put Louth 1-6 to 0-6 ahead going in at half time.

Mind you, half-time substitute Bernard McElvany hit back in kind four minutes into the second half, running onto a deft pass by Declan Reilly to loop a shot into the corner.

Peter Foy pointed soon afterwards and Longford were in front for the first time. That lead lasted no more than a minute though as Glenn Ryan’s crew failed to register another score, while Louth gradually, if in somewhat laboured fashion, pulled away.

Keenan, White (free), Rooney, Judge (free) were all on the mark before Declan Byrne sent a kick sailing over from wide on the right to seal the victory.

“We have to take every opportunity that comes our way and unfortunately we didn’t” said Ryan.

“I feel we’re a better team than that but we haven’t reached the level that I think we’re capable of. It’s very disappointing. I think Louth were probably there for the taking but we just didn’t reach the level that we needed get to in order to make the most of it.”

While Ryan and his players will wonder what might have been, for Louth it was mission accomplished.

“It was my first championship match today and I’m very proud that the lads didn’t let me down” said Fitzpatrick.

Louth: N Gallagher; E McAuley, D Finnegan, R Greene; R Finnegan, M Fanning, J O'Brien; P Keenan (0-2), B White (0-3, 0-3f); A McDonnell, M Brennan, A Reid; C Judge (0-3, 0-1f), S Lennon (1-1), JP Rooney (0-2).

Louth Subs: D Byrne for A McDonnell ’49, A Hoey for JP Rooney ’64.

Longford: D Sheridan; D Brady, D Masterson, S Hannon; S Mulligan, E Williams, P Foy (0-1); A O'Connor, B Gilleran; P Dowd (0-1), F McGee (0-2, 0-1f), K Mulligan (0-1); D Reilly, S McCormack (0-2), P Barden.

Longford Subs: B McElvaney (1-0) for B Gilleran, N Farrell for P Foy ’50, C Mimnagh for A O’Connor ’57.

Referee: Pat Fox (Westmeath).