Goals key to avenging Leinster defeat, says Louth boss Devlin

The Wee County earned a memorable win over Dublin on Sunday. 

Louth manager Gavin Devlin. Pic: INPHO/Ryan Byrne

Louth manager Gavin Devlin agreed goals were the way to see off Dublin and avenge their Leinster semi-final defeat.

“I think goals is a good way to beat anyone if you can get them,” said Tyrone’s 2003 All-Ireland SFC winner. “I know there's a lot to say about Dublin and how maybe they aren't the team they once were but they're still very fast and very efficient and slick. If they're only a shadow of the team they once were they're still a bloody good team. And they are a good team.

“You've got to get majors. For us we've got to keep the scoreboard ticking. We spoke about it that if we get half a chance we've got to be brave enough to take it.” 

Devlin was thrilled that his team were able to make amends for that 10-point loss in Portlaoise at the start of May. “We couldn't get into our groove or find a rhythm at all in Portlaoise. We were holding out and holding out and feeling that we would eventually find our groove, but we couldn't get no rhythm at all.

“Yeah, there was a lot of regrets and hurt after that game. It took us a long time to win the Delaney Cup. We knew some day we'd have to hand it back, but today we wanted to hand it back. We wanted to at least go down on the sword and we didn't feel that we did that at all.

“The amount of work our boys have been doing over the last number of months, it's not easy accepting that. We felt the best way to do something about it was to get straight back out onto the training field.

“That wasn't the perfect performance out there today, to be any stretch of the imagination. There's a lot of unforced errors one way or the other. I still feel there's loads of things there that we can certainly improve on, but the one big thing today is that we stayed resilient and we didn't go away.” 

As Louth enter the winners’ side of Tuesday’s All-Ireland Round 2, joining Armagh, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Mayo, Tyrone and Westmeath, he feels there is real opportunity for the 2024 Leinster champions to progress.

“We have big expectations just of ourselves and we just want to stay true to ourselves. As I alluded to at the start of the game, I suppose only Westmeath and Armagh haven't suffered a bad result and we're no different than anyone else in Ireland. We suffered ours but the key was getting a reaction to it and having a positive reaction.”