O’Rourke confident Louth can push for promotion
Louth are sitting on two points in Division 2 after one win from two but, in reality, have dominated three of the four halves they’ve played. They were six clear of Westmeath at one stage in their opening game, eventually losing by a point, and looked much slicker and stronger than Galway on Saturday.
Former All Star Paddy Keenan was the inspiration at midfield, kicking three points and turning the screw in the second-half with his high fielding and hard running. But it’s the form of Brian White, Shane Lennon and Ciaran Byrne that will please fans most.
White, along with Mick Fanning and John O’Brien, spent the last two seasons on an off the panel due to emigration but all three are fully committed now and in form.
“We feel there’s nobody in the division that we can’t beat,” said manager O’Rourke. “I believe very strongly in our ability. If I go through that squad, player for player, I have no problem measuring them against any player in Division 2.
“It’s all the pieces that glue all that together — that is the question mark and how they produce it as a group. They have worked so hard since the Westmeath game because they were so frustrated with losing that one.
“They felt they didn’t do themselves justice and, against Galway, I didn’t expect anything other than the performance we gave. I wasn’t sure we would win or not but I was sure they would produce that sort of work rate and intensity.”
Galway clung on in the first half, taking advantage of five Louth wides to level it at 0-8 apiece at half-time. But Alan Mulholland’s side lacked dynamism and the sort of inspiration provided by Keenan for Louth.
In the last 20 minutes they were overrun as Louth opened up big spaces and kicked five points at one stage without reply. It was quite a turnaround from the high of beating Derry in their opening game.
“When we win a game, people in Galway tend to get ahead of themselves a little bit,” said Mulholland. “It seems a problem in Galway. When we beat Derry, people seemed to think we were a little bit further down the line than we really are. We aren’t world-beaters but we know we aren’t that bad either.
“We are short on confidence and we don’t want to knock it. We want to try to keep the lads’ confidence up. But the work rate at stages in the second half wasn’t good enough so we have got to change that.”
Scorers for Louth: B White 0-4 (2f, 1 45), S Lennon (2f) & P Keenan 0-3 each, D Maguire 0-2, P Smith, M Brennan, A McDonnell, A Reid & C Byrne 0-1 each.
Scorers for Galway: M Meehan (2f) & S Armstrong (2f) 0-3 each, N Coleman 0-2, M Martin, E Concannon, D Cummins 0-1 each.
LOUTH: N Gallagher; G Hoey, D Finnegan, J O’Brien; C McGuinness, D Crilly, A Reid; M Fanning, P Keenan; A McDonnell, M Brennan, B White; K Rogers, S Lennon, P Smith.
Subs: B Donnelly for Fanning 27, C Byrne for Rogers h/t, D Maguire for Smith 64, R Carroll for Lennon 69, L Shevlin for Finnegan 70.
GALWAY: M Breathnach; J Moore, F Hanley, J Duane; C Sweeney, G Sice, G Sweeney; N Coleman, P Conroy; E Concannon, S Denvir, M Martin; S Armstrong, M Meehan, D Cummins.
Subs: C Costello for Sweeney 46, F O Curraoin for Martin 46, M Hehir for Cummins 57, M Boyle for Denvir 66.
Referee: D Fahy (Longford).
