Today might turn out to be one to remember for the Blueshirts but our own Blueshirt bainisteoir may not be celebrating too much tonight. According to sources close to the action this evening, we lost to Louth by four points, 1-15 to 1-11, in our final challenge match ahead of the Connacht semi-final with Roscommon on June 20th.
It sounds like we took a leaf from Dublin’s book by fielding the best part of two teams tonight. Here’s the one that lined out at the start:
David Clarke; Liam O’Malley, Ger Cafferkey, Donal Vaughan; Peadar Gardiner, Trevor Howley, David Heaney; Tom Parsons, Ronan McGarritty; Mark Ronaldson, Trevor Mortimer, Aidan Kilcoyne; Andy Moran, Barry Moran, BJ Padden.
David Clarke got injured after 15 minutes and was replaced by Kenneth O’Malley but the rest of the changes happened at half-time. Here’s the side that started the second half:
Kenneth O’Malley; Liam O’Malley, Ciaran Conroy, Kevin McLoughlin; Donal Vaughan, James Nallen, Andy Moran; David Heaney, Ronan McGarritty; Barry Kelly, Aidan O’Shea, Mark Ronaldson; Mikey Sweeney, Barry Moran, Austin O’Malley.
Second half subs were Ger Cafferkey for Liam O’Malley, Seamus O’Shea for Heaney and Conor Mortimer for Ronaldson.
That’s 26 players in all that turned out at some point this evening. Neither Alan Dillon nor Pat Harte took any part in the match and, of course, Tom Cunniffe is still recovering from injury so he didn’t feature either. Keith Higgins is playing with the hurlers in Newry tomorrow and so took no part tonight either.
But Aidan O’Shea, who will be sitting his rescheduled English Paper 2 in the morning, did play for the second half and, once again, his brother Seamus had to wait until 15 minutes before the end to get a run-out. Conor made his return to the fray in the second half, which is definitely a development to be welcomed.
The only detail I have about scorers is that Mikey Sweeney got our goal at some stage in the second half.
And the result? Well, Louth are in action in the Leinster championship next weekend so they were obviously a bit sharper than our lads tonight. The wholesale changes made at half-time meant that the exercise was more about giving a good few of the lads some game time than it was about putting one over the Wee County (after all, they still haven’t got their own back on us for the 1950 All-Ireland). What it does mean, of course, is that we’re still largely in the dark about a number of positions on the team (for example, will Andy Moran play in the full-forward or half-back line?) and so it’s not just the venue for the match that’s up in the air at this point.
Willie Joe, I am not sure that the fact that Louth are out in championship mode next weekend should make us feel better after losing to them. We are out the week after and we already have played a championship game V New York.
Now I know everyone will rubbish New York but in all honesty I wouldn’ of rank Louth too far above them. This smacks of last years tripe. Meath wiped us in a challenge, Howley picked up a nasty injury, Meath got swissed by Wexford and Limerick in the championship after and we only beat Sligo. I will admit that I am one of the 3 who have voted in favour of a Rossies result on your poll. There are a myriad of reasons but I will confine myself to a few. Roscommon are a young team with a solid result behind them already. Their manager seems to have their full backing and belief. His blend is made up of his own successful minor crop ’06 mixed in with the likes of Finneran and Kilbride. We on the other hand read rubbish that decribes Andy Moran as a “leader” and “magnificant footballer”. If he was all the above he would be either a back or a forward. Instead he fluctuates between the bench , the backs and the forwards. Put bluntly McGarrity is not a leader either, no other county fears him a la Dara O Se or even O Hara. For four years we have watched Pat Holmes work a miracle with the U21 team. At the end of his travails we have not unearthed a single top class forward. Spare me Aiden O Shea, he was discovered with last years minors and will be flogged to death before the next 12 months. Downs U21 showed us the level we are at. We stand at a most dangerous place in this forthcoming game and if we lose serious and lonlasting repercussions will evolve. Maybe its the crap wet day that fills me with foreboding, however its not. I dont see anything for us this year and that result V Louth confirms that.
Ronaldson got the goal for Mayo not sweeney!