Football

McNulty holds his hands up

AIDAN O'Rourke's high-flying Louth left his 2002 Armagh All-Ireland SFC medal-winning team-mate Justin McNulty totally stunned as 'The Wee Reds' hammered Laois at O'Moore Park by 10 points.

"Shocked. Absolutely shocked," was McNulty's reaction to seeing his team torn apart by a brilliant Louth display spearheaded by Shane Lennon's 1-3 from play and a defence that restricted the Laois forwards to only two scores from play.

McNulty (above) put his hands up afterwards to accept O'Rourke had won the tactical battle.

"Louth were tactically better, hungrier than us," he admitted.

"My mind is boggled trying to figure out how that happened. We lost the personal battles in a number of positions. I lost the sideline battle, there's no question about that."