Louth's Narrow Escape: Brennan talks tough conditions, missed chances, and a gritty win

Adrenaline was coursing through Ger Brennan’s veins in the aftermath of his side's first National League win. Home comforts in Ardee, he felt, was a key factor on the day especially for his players.

“It’s been something that the players have been cognisant of.”“They’re made Ardee a bit of a fortress over the last couple of seasons and they wanted to continue that. Thankfully, we’ve now got one of our three home games completed and held the opposition at bay.”Despite the win, Brennan will not be overly clapping his players on the back. The former Dublin centre half feels there is a lot to work on and on another day against a more punishing side, Louth could have lost the game.

“I wouldn’t be licking myself or the lads too much,” Brennan began.“Because Cork will rue the number of chances they missed. I thought we won playing poorly, which is great, but we’ve an awful lot to work on so I wouldn’t be overly pleased. Ultimately, though, it’s about getting points.

“The points were very hard won. We could all see the effort of the lads to get us over the line. It definitely was not pretty and elements of the game that we were good at last week, defensively in particular, we were not so good at.

“I thought we played really poorly but were up by a point at half-time. One of the goals was a quick counter-attack but the lads discussed at half-time that they felt they were better in terms of using possession and adapting to the referee’s interpretation of the tackle.

“Despite being up by one on the scoreboard, we weren’t particularly happy, to be honest.”Brennan had no excuses for his players and felt at times they were the makers of their own misfortune on the field.

“Ultimately, we live in Ireland and lads should be more able to manage the conditions and that’s something I know the fellas are disappointed by. Winning is great but there are a couple of things we have to tidy up on.

“If you keep giving the ball away, you’re going to be doing a lot of running. So that’s down to themselves; I hope they’re tired, because it’s their own fault… I’m only messing!”

After getting off the mark, the complexion of the ever claustrophobic Division 2 has changed however for Brennan. Firstly though he had a special mention for his rookie goalkeeper Niall McDonnell from the Fechins.

“Niall McDonnell probably needs a shout. He really saved us on a lot of occasions. You are looking for performances to continue to improve and Division 2 is dog eat dog. There are a few good results popping up so far and some of the favourites to go down mightn’t necessarily be the favourites after two rounds. If you can just pick up a few points early, it does help to take the pressure off a bit.

“They were great finishes on the counter-attack and that was the cushion that got us over the line at the end. It’s something we have practised and it can be a heavy bit of sod out there when the weather is as it is so trying to power up the pitch against the wind was a tough ask, but the lads did it.”

Brennan finished with a diplomatic response in his analysis of Martin McNally’s refereeing performance. The Louth faithful felt the Monaghan whistler was not overly generous towards his neighbouring county particularly in the frantic finish.

“We need the officials and I know the GAA are putting on a big drive to get a couple more guys on board,” Brennan began.

“The thing I would hope is that in the way elite players are reviewing and analysing games, I would hope the same process is there for referees to help them to continue to improve as well because I’m probably a bit at odds over a couple of things that happened.”

Technically, in the rulebook, the tackle is a side-on hit or making contact with the ball. The referee applied it literally, which was probably hard given the conditions for both teams.

“The communication we have with players beforehand is that referees are only human and they have their own way of looking for things. We have to adapt and get on with it.”