Louth edge winner-takes-all thriller against Clare to stay in Championship
Sam Mulroy of Louth celebrates scoring a two-pointer. Pic: Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile
Louth’s summer adventure will kick on through to the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final stage after the Leinster champions just about got the better of Clare in a Group 3 shootout to decide who would go through and who would bow out.
Neither county had a point to their name after the opening two rounds but Louth knew that a draw would be enough thanks to their superior points difference. This performance wasn’t perfect, but it did the job against an opponent that never gave up.
Clare galloped out of the traps with three quickfire points inside the first four minutes against a Louth side that has made an unfortunate habit of slow starts. Ger Brennan’s men wouldn’t trouble the scoreboard for 12 minutes themselves.
The Munster side had a few good opportunities to add to that platform but squandered them before the game then settled into a period where the supposedly lost art of defending took centre stage at both ends.
Louth had begun to settle by the time the tie was blown open, but the black card shown to Manus Doherty for a foul on Craig Lennon set the stage for a purple patch from the Leinster champions who scorched through the next ten minutes.
They outscored their opponent 2-3 to 0-1 in that timeframe. Sam Mulroy claimed one of the goals, Ciaran Downey got the other, the latter of that pair adding four points to his tally in a phenomenal nine-minute burst.
Clare went to pieces in this period. The concession of both goals was sloppy and only a goalline block from captain Eoin Cleary on Lennon prevented a third. By the time Doherty reappeared Clare were 2-7 to 0-4 in arrears.
Losing All-Star Lennon to injury late in the first-half was a blow for the Wee County but the sense at that stage was that this game was nearly in the bag. It was 2-8 to 0-6 at the break, Downey firing over another to bring his first-half tally to 1-5, all from play.
The same man dirtied his bib on the restart, coughing up the ball in his own third and paving the way for Shane Griffin to feed Rory McMahon whose shot was just about powerful enough to get past goalkeeper Niall McDonnell and make the net.
The drama was only starting.
Clare simply weren’t giving up. They fought tooth and nail with that impetus and twice got it back to five points while Shane Griffin had a shot saved that would have brought it back to a one-score game with 17 minutes to go.
A Sam Mulroy two-pointer soon after had the gap pushed out to eight but even then Clare wouldn’t face away. Captain Cleary made another major intervention when claiming a poacher’s goal and the point he added straight after left four between them.
Louth were already looking edgy, no doubt feeling the tension coming from their support in the crowd. That didn’t dissipate with the Banner twice bringing it back to three points but the chasers lacked composure in front of goal towards the end and fell just short.
M McInerney (0-5, 3f); E Cleary (1-2); R McMahon (1-0); E McMahon (0-2); B McNamara and A Griffin (both 0-1); S Ryan (0-1 ‘45’);
S Mulroy (1-6, 1f, 1 2-ptr); C Downey (1-5); C Branigan (0-2); C Lennon, C Grimes, R Burns, R Walsh and (all 0-1);
S Ryan; R McMahon, R Lanigan, M Doherty; A Sweeney, C Rouine, I Ugwueru; B McNamara, D Walsh; E McMahon, D Coughlan, C Meaney; A Griffin, E Cleary, M McInerney.
S Griffin for Meaney (24); B Rouine for Walsh (50); J Stack for Sweeney (59); K Sexton for Cleary (64); C Downes for McMahon (67);
N McDonnell; D Nally, E Carolan, D McKenny; C McKeever, P Lynch, C Lennon; T Durnin, D McConnell; D Corcoran, C Downey, C Grimes; C Keenan, S Mulroy, R Burns.
R Walsh for Lennon (32); D Campbell for Keenan and C Branigan for Grimes (both 53); A Williams for Burns (66); T Markey for McDonnell (66); K McArdle for Downey (68);
B Tiernan (Dublin).
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