Louth book date with Dublin and condemn Kildare to Tailteann Cup

Conor Grimes of Louth celebrates with supporter Marie Lynch, from Dundalk, after the Leinster GAA Football Senior Championship semi-final. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach, Sportsfile

Leinster SFC semi-final: Louth 0-17 Kildare 0-13 

The contrasting emotions between the winning and losing counties in a Leinster semi-final has rarely been so stark.

For Louth, this four point win over Kildare was the culmination of a wonderful week for football in the county. Ger Brennan’s team arrived in Croke Park buoyed by a brilliant win for the county’s under 20s during the week over Dublin to reach a Leinster final and the seniors now join them and Louth will compete in two Leinster finals in the same season for the first time since 1960.

For Kildare, it seems their miserable season still has yet to hit rock bottom and the Tailteann Cup now beckons, with this defeat following on from losing all seven games in the Allianz Football League Division 2.

Kildare were their own worst enemies and some deplorable shooting was at the heart of this defeat. In the end, they kicked 13 wides, to Louth’s seven, but even that only tells half the story as their two best goal scoring chances of the game passed by without even a shot. 

The first of those came in the early stages when Kildare intercepted Niall McDonnell’s kickout but in a three v one situation, Darragh Kirwan sent his hand pass sailing above the head of Niall Kelly and the tone was set for a wasteful afternoon in front of goal.

In front of a sparse Croke Park crowd, Louth led by 0-3 to 0-1 after 14 minutes before Kildare hit back with a rare purple patch in front of goal with three points in a row, the third of those coming from the first of three long range points kicked by Shane Farrell the day.

Louth responded well to that and answered back with a key spell of six unanswered points and led 0-10 to 0-6.

After that, Kildare were never able to get closer than three points and another gilt edged goalscoring chance passed them by as the game headed towards the final quarter when Daniel Flynn elected to pass to Eoin Doyle rather than shooting himself and the chance was lost.

Louth opened up a six point lead heading into the final five minutes after Dermot Campbell’s second of the game. They did endure some unnecessarily nervous moments in the four additional minutes when Kildare scored the last three points of the game but in the end they held on to reach back-to-back Leinster Senior Championship finals for the first time since 1958 and it was unsurprising that their manager Brennan was a happy man after the game.

“It is a massive achievement for the group and the work that has gone with the clubs and in development squads and with the previous management teams. There’s an awful lot of work going in to promote Gaelic Games, there’s a lot of passionate people in Louth,” he said.

Results in the Ulster Championship on Saturday evening guaranteed Louth a place in the All-Ireland series before a ball was kicked on Sunday and Brennan agreed that did alleviate some of the pressure on his players and they will be among the top two seeding groups in Tuesday’s draw for group stages of the Sam Maguire Cup.

“We were obviously aware of the Armagh result last night which took a bit of pressure off the lads, I think it’s well deserved for the fellas and another step forward from last year,” said Brennan, who will now lead the team into a Leinster final against his native Dublin.

Kildare could only dream of such a scenario but their manager Glenn Ryan said his team will be ready for the Tailteann Cup by the time it throws in.

“It’s not by accident that we are there, our name didn’t get pulled out of a hat. We’re there because the results haven’t been good enough.

“It will be hard to re-group but these fellas will re-group.

“We have to put a plan in place, to be honest I didn’t have a plan in place for this. We’ll give them a schedule and work toward it as best we can, that’s our starting point,” said the Kildare manager.

Scorers for Louth: S Mulroy 0-7 (4fs, 1’45), T Durnin 0-2, C Lennon 0-2, C Grimes 0-2, P Mathews 0-1, R Burns 0-1, N Sharkey 0-1, C Downey 0-1.

Scorers for Kildare: K Feely 0-4 (2fs), S Farrell 0-3fs, D Kirwan 0-2, P Woodgate 0-2fs, D Flynn 0-1, T Archbold 0-1.

LOUTH: N McDonnell; D McKenny, D Corcoran, P Lynch; C McKeever, A Williams, N Sharkey; T Durnin, P Mathews; C Lennon, C Keenan, C Grimes; R Burns, S Mulroy, C Downey.

Subs: L Grey for Sharkey (51); C Early for Burns (55); B Duffy for Corcoran (57); C Byrne for Mathews (68); Ciaran Murphy for Downey (70+2).

KILDARE: M Donnellan; R Burke, S Ryan, M O’Grady; J Sargent, E Doyle, P McDermott; A Masterson, K O’Callaghan; S Farrell 0-3 (3fs), N Kelly, A Beirne; K Feely 0-4(2fs), D Kirwan 0-2, D Flynn 0-1.

Subs: B Kelly for Beirne (41); P Woodgate for N Kelly (50); T Archbold for Burke (55); L Killian for O’Callaghan (58); S O’Sullivan for Masterson (68).

REFEREE: Conor Lane (Cork)