Football

The Mickey Harte revolution takes another massive step forward as Louth reach Leinster SFC final

Craig Lennon of Louth celebrates scoring an extra-time point in the win over Offaly at Croke Park Picture by Sportsfile
Craig Lennon of Louth celebrates scoring an extra-time point in the win over Offaly at Croke Park Picture by Sportsfile Craig Lennon of Louth celebrates scoring an extra-time point in the win over Offaly at Croke Park Picture by Sportsfile

Leinster Senior Football Championship semi-final

Louth 0-27 Offaly 2-15 (after extra-time)

THE Mickey Harte revolution in Louth took another massive step forward yesterday afternoon in Croke Park, when the Wee county came through a tumultuous and memorable semi-final clash with Offaly, eventually steamrolling through the midlanders in extra-time after a late Offaly comeback undid what looked to be a commanding position with 10 minutes to play. 

“It just seems to be the case that we don’t make life easy for ourselves, we’ve done that in several games” the Tyrone man reflected afterwards. 

“We were in a very strong position and had a great goal chance, maybe on closer scrutiny it might have been a goal” he said, referring to Sam Mulroy’s effort that was scrambled off the line. 

“The right man had the ball at the time. It could have put Offaly to bed but it gave them the belief to say we will fight on”.

It should never have come to that. Louth were the better team in the first half, but still went in level, and then looked utterly dominant when they started to press Offaly’s kickout early in the second half. 

Ciarán Downey was the star man for the Wee county, racking up five of his seven points in that opening 35 minutes, while Dylan McKeown also picked off two excellent scores for the men in red.

Offaly relied on their defensive strength to win turnovers, and also needed a wonderful goal from Peter Cunningham, assisted by Anton Sullivan, to get to the interval level at 1-6 to 0-9. 

For the first 15 minutes of the second half, it started to look as if things might be falling into place for the Faithful county.

There was greater efficiency and craft to their play, and while Louth delivered some rash wides, excellent points from Cian Farrell and Rúairí McNamee edged Offaly two points clear. 

This was the point, however, where Louth played their trump card, which was their midfield dominance.

Louth pushed up on Offaly, and the squeeze yielded a bountiful harvest. Tommy Durnin and Conor Early were exceptional in the kickout battle as well as chipping over a couple of scores, and in the space of 10 minutes they rattled off six points unanswered.

Craig Lennon and Liam Jackson added a punch off the bench that Offaly didn’t have, and the game could have been wrapped up when Mulroy had that goal chance. 

Instead, Dylan Hyland fired over a couple of majestic scores and set up a tense finish, leaving Anton Sullivan to step in off the left wing to bisect the uprights and level the game.

A point from Bill Carroll to get overtime underway suggested Offaly might carry on as they left off, but Louth were fitter, stronger, and they now seemed to be able to break tackles and run through Offaly at will. 

Sam Mulroy was the main beneficiary as he kicked five of his six points in extra-time, while Craig Lennon, Conor Grimes and Niall Sharkey also stepped up with vital scores, ensuring that even after Declan Hogan fired in a goal to reduce the gap briefly to two, the result was never really in doubt.   

“For those you can afford to celebrate it, to go out and celebrate it” was Harte’s advice to the Louth supporters. 

“We as a team can’t celebrate it because there is nothing to celebrate. We have to perform well in the Leinster final because if not that would actually deflate the work we have put in. We have to really work hard to be competitive. That’s our target for the next two weeks”.

Louth J Califf; D McKenny, D Corcoran, C Murphy; L Grey, N Sharkey (0-2), C McKeever; T Durnin (0-2), C Early (0-2); P Matthews, C Downey (0-7), C Grimes (0-2); C Keenan, S Mulroy (0-6, 0-2f), D McKeown (0-2)

Subs D McConnon for Keenan (32), L Jackson (0-1) for Matthews (h-t), C Lennon (0-3) for McKeown (h-t), P Lynch for Murphy (46), A Williams for McKeever (64), R Burns for Jackson (f-t), C McCaul for McConnon (f-t), McKeever for Corcoran (83), Jackson for McKenny (85), Murphy for Grey (87) Yellow cards McKeever (47), Grimes (79)

Offaly I Duffy; D Hogan (1-0), D Dempsey, L Pearson; C Donohoe, P Cunningham (1-1), C Donnelly; J McEvoy, C McNamee; D Hyland (0-5, 0-1f), R McNamee (0-3, 0-1f), J Evans; C Farrell (0-2, 0-1f), N Dunne (0-2, 0-1f), A Sullivan (0-1)

Subs J Maher for Evans (49), A Leavy for C McNamee (56), B Carroll (0-1) for Dunne (56), J O’Brien for Pearson (61), J Bryant for McEvoy (64), L Egan for Sullivan (f-t), N Bracken for Donohoe (f-t), McEvoy for


R McNamee (f-t), S O’Toole Greene for Donnelly (79), Sullivan for Hyland (80), A Brazil for Cunningham (83).

Yellow cards Sullivan (47)

Referee J McQuillan (Cavan)