Louth management aggrieved by vital late call from referee

It was never going to be easy, life in Division Two of the National League, however everything seemed to be going plan as the tie with Clare creeped into injury time.

Unfortunately, it was not to be for the Wee County, as despite a late goal from Ciaran Downey, four injury time efforts from the home side meant Louth went home empty handed.

Injury time heartbreak sees Louth footballers defeated in Ennis

Speaking with the media after the game, Louth manager Mickey Harte pointed to one huge decision in the game by referee Sean Lonergan.

Conor Grimes was on the attack as the Wee County pushed forward in the dying moments of the game, before ending up on the floor.

The Tipperary official controversially blew his whistle and awarded a free to Clare. This led to Jamie Malone’s winning score seven minutes into added time.

“I thought we battled well in the first half” he noted. “The lead wasn’t that huge given the breeze, but we knew we had a game on our hands come the second half and they got back handy enough to draw the game. 

“We actually then got a real purple patch ourselves, got two up and then it looked like they were taking over again when we got that wonderful goal from Ciaran Downey. I felt we played much the better football in the last 10 minutes.

“I couldn’t for the life of me understand why Conor Grimes was blown up. First of all, I think he was fouled before he even went to ground. Then he passed the ball out properly with his hand and the ref gives a free out, a critical decision in that game.”

But the Tyrone native is never one to forget his players on days like this. He was impressed by their overall play which saw them led for so long in the contest. And his overall main feelings afterwards were that they deserved to get something out of the fixture.

“I didn’t think we would have anything like six minutes of added time in the second half. It is just devastating on players who put the effort into that game today and got nothing out of it. You see some simple decisions go against you and you just wonder why does that happen sometimes?

“We just have to take it. It’s not easy to take, but I think we have to be very proud of the players and what they did out there today. They gave every ounce of energy that they had, and we couldn’t ask for more from them. I just think they deserve more because of that.”

The old adage is goals win games. Despite often showcasing their impressive defensive shape and knowhow against Clare, particularly in the first half, that doesn’t mean Harte didn’t have a good attacking philosophy too.

Louth were quite clinical with their opportunities on Sunday, but he did admit they didn’t get the scores to kill the game off and maybe should’ve focused more on shooting over the posts rather then going for a green flag.

But it's that final goal miss, by Dan Corcoran when his side were a point up with just over a minute or so left to play, that he is reminded of most when reflecting on their many missed chances.

“We played enough good football to go further ahead and probably to a degree we overplayed for goals before we got the first goal. And then we could’ve taken a few points after it too.

“We created a good goal chance (from Corcoran), and it was a good save by the keeper, but you would like to think those things should be finished as well. 

“If that had gone in, it sealed the game for us. So we have to take a bit of responsibility for the fact we didn’t close out the game when we created enough opportunities to do that.”

First half goals secure a valuable victory for Louth against Offaly

Stephen O'Donnell hopeful Dundalk can recruit more signings before season opener

One rather large negative to note from the game was Louth’s kickout strategy. In the second half they had 20 of them, losing possession 11 times. Harte noticed this trend too, but felt his side eventually got to grips with Clare and held their own by the fourth quarter.

“They have big people around the middle of the field who were pushing up and making it difficult to get the short one off. It meant our best option was to try them long. But I think we won a fair share of them ourselves too, so I wouldn’t say we were cleaned out. 

“At one stage we were getting a poor percentage return, but we got a grip of that. And if we weren’t winning it clean, we were winning the breaks.”