Meath-Louth tension is history, declares Sheridan

AS THE counties square off again on Sunday, Joe Sheridan believes the tensions between Meath and Louth stemming from the acrimonious 2010 Leinster final have dissipated.

The Seneschalstown man, who scored the controversial winning goal, believes last year’s derby qualifier in Cavan, which passed off without major incident, went a long way to ending hostilities between the counties.

“Thank God, it’s all in the past now,” said Sheridan. “Everything is sorted out now. The game last year was great to get it over and done with, given all the crap from the year before. The result was good for us but it was a relief to play Louth again and have it done. We all know what happened and hopefully now we can all move on.”

Sheridan is unlikely to see any action in Sunday’s Bord na Móna O’Byrne Cup second-round game in Páirc Tailteann as he overcomes a stomach muscle problem that has troubled him since the summer.

His main aim is being ready for Meath’s Allianz Division 2 opener against Monaghan on February 4.

He’s keeping his fingers crossed for better fortunes in 2012 after a tumultuous 2011 season for Meath.

“Seamus (McEnaney) only came into the job in November and it didn’t go too well for us in the league and that didn’t help going into the championship.

“Then there was the hassle with selectors and we were all over the place. All those things didn’t help.

“Hopefully, this year we’ll be okay. We have Seán Cahill in as trainer and his expertise will help us to improve.

“There’s no use lying about it, we’ve work to do. We only won a few games last year and one of them was against Kilkenny. We’ll be going out every game trying to get a result.”

For the first time in his senior career, Sheridan will be in a dressing room without retired duo Nigel Crawford and Anthony Moyles while goalkeeper Brendan Murphy hung up his boots for a second — and likely final — time.

“They were great for Meath football. They were three big characters and they were great for the younger players coming into the panel as well. Their service was unbelievable. We have a lot of young lads in the panel now and we have to pick things up and try and push it along.”

Louth are expected to name an experimental team for the first competitive game of the season while McEnaney will give some of last year’s fringe players a stage to impress. “It’s a derby and it should a good tight game. We’d a good win over Wexford and the younger boys like Tom Walsh, Brian Menton and Donnacha Tobin need games to get ready for the league.”