Proud Fitzpatrick hails heroes

PETER FITZPATRICK has accused Kildare of failing to pay his team any respect ahead of Saturday night’s dramatic Leinster senior football championship encounter at Páirc Tailteann.

The Louth manager was barely able to talk, the hoarseness in his voice betraying his own efforts in the 70 minutes of drama before.

In his first year at the helm of his native county, Fitzpatrick is intensely proud of his footballing roots and what he perceived as arrogance on his opponents’ behalf in looking beyond Louth did not sit well with him.

“I don’t think Kildare gave us enough respect,” he croaked, before adding: “I just felt as though they were teeing up a Leinster final and it’s a very strange thing to do.

“It’s championship game, to me it’s a one-off and it’s a 50-50 game. I said it all along and I don’t think a lot of people believed me, this is not a bad Louth team.”

Nobody doubts Fitzpatrick’s contention now that his side had a tremendous opportunity of reaching the provincial decider.

Especially if Brian White and Paddy Keenan can continue to dominate the midfield sector.

On this evidence, the forwards have the ability to turn possession into scores but Fitzpatrick knows only too well that they need to be tighter at the back.

“We’ve got a fantastic midfield in Brian White and Paddy Keenan,” he enthused. “It’s a foundation for a good base. Going forward we have to improve in our defence and everything else but we’ve got a realistic chance now of getting to a Leinster final.”

There were no excuses from Kieran McGeeney, who admitted that he would be working hard on his team’s defensive frailties between now and the qualifiers. “People say there’s not enough scoring in Gaelic football but unfortunately we proved them wrong today,” he said wryly. “If you scored 1-16 in a game you’d think you did pretty well but defensively to leak 1-22 is just brutal. Although most of that will come from our full-back line and their full-forward line, it was throughout the pitch. They were attacking from corner-back right up and we didn’t stem the tide. We got ourselves back in the game well and let them take a quick free kick and they stick it in the corner of the net. That seemed to be the whole day for us. We were napping from start to finish.”

The decision to replace goalscorer Pádraig O’Neill so that Dermot Earley could be introduced in the 29th minute was a massive surprise given the glaring rearguard weaknesses and failure to win sufficient possession around the middle third.

“You make a call. Paudie was just back (from injury) but you might look back and say you made a mistake.”