Louth secure well-fought win

Louth 1-16 Kildare 0-14

Louth kept their bid to retain the O’Byrne Cup alive with a dogged victory over 14-man Kildare in a well-contested and entertaining semi-final at Newbridge.

Peter Fitzpatrick’s charges showed a lot of perseverance to keep in touch as the Lilywhites threatened to exert real control at stages in the first half and early in the second.

The 47th minute sending off of Kildare centre-back Brian Flanagan was a significant factor and there could be no arguments, as his two yellow cards were for injudicious challenges. The player himself knew he was in trouble with his second foul on Aaron Hoey and referee Cormac Reilly had no option but to flash the yellow and red.

At that stage, Kildare were only leading by a point but they had held a clear upper hand, without being able to kill off their opponents.

Karl Ennis pointed to stretch their advantage but scores from Colm Judge (free), free man Declan Byrne and JP Rooney (free) gave the Wee County men the lead.

Veteran defender, Anthony Rainbow was outstanding all afternoon and he restored parity with a brilliant point from tight on the right touchline and when substitute James Kavanagh converted good work from Dermot Earley and Ronan Sweeney to point with less than six minutes remaining, it looked like the hosts might squeeze out the victory.

They were undone by a huge slice of misfortune in the 67th minute though, as Byrne raided forward on the left and sent a floating shot that looked destined to creep over the crossbar. It dipped at the last second though, deceiving Kildare net minder Shane McCormack and bouncing off both the crossbar and upright to end up in the net.

That knocked the stuffing out of Kildare and Louth finished strongly with points from Judge (free), Ronan Carroll and Shane Lennon for a fine win.

Louth had begun in impressive fashion rifling over three points in as many minutes, Brian White and Colin Judges converting frees either side of a magnificent score from wing-back Ray Finnegan.

Kildare roared back into the game quickly though with Rainbow providing much of the impetus from wing-back. Dermot Earley was a driving force as well and he finished a wonderful move to lash over from 46 metres. Further points from Ronan Walsh, Rob Kelly and Karl Ennis saw them establish a lead by the 16th minute.

It was nip and tuck from there to half time with Kildare going in at the interval leading by 0-8 to 0-7.

That lead quickly stretched to three after the resumption, with Pádraig O’Neill and Kelly on the mark but again Louth hit back courtesy of Carroll and Rooney.

That was typical of Louth’s grittiness and it was what gave them the honours in the end.