Ardee pitch allows Louth to play the type of football favoured by management

Rory Gallagher, the Derry manager, called it ‘old-school’, but as yet no-one has said it’s a fortress, or, ‘let’s make it a fortress’. But it could be headed to becoming one.

Ardee’s Pairc Mhuire, or DEFY Pairc Mhuire to give it its new official name, is where Louth footballers have played their two league matches so far this season, and are set to complete their Division Two programme there with two further outings.

The reds were there for all of last year’s successful Division Three campaign, beating Antrim to be assured of promotion, before adding silverware with a win over Limerick at Croke Park.

Pairc Mhuire has an incline, but not as prominent as the one existing at the time – and for many years afterwards – when there were just three pitches in the county capable of staging inter-county matches, Drogheda’s Gaelic Grounds and the Athletic Grounds in Dundalk, being the others.

The St Mary’s club has done tremendous work at the venue over the number of years, under the leadership of Paddy Callan, Mickey Rooney and others, adding a second playing field, a ball wall, an astro pitch, and, of course, removing the slope.

There’s also an impressive complex. The sod is always well groomed, as it was for the clash with Limerick a few weeks back. 

Aesthetics aside, Pairc Mhuire looks a good fit for the Louth team. They appear to be at home there in every sense, and if we were to put a tally on the advantage we estimate they carry into each match, it would be four or five points.

Okay, so this didn’t manifest itself in a win over Derry, nor did it lead to an overly impressive performance in the defeat of Limerick. But in both games Mickey Harte’s charges were at ease playing the type of football being asked of them.

And but for mistakes that could happen on any pitch, and missing chances parceled in the finest of bows, four instead of two points could've been picked up and the scoring average much healthier.

The third of four games at the Ardee grounds takes place this Sunday with the visit of Kildare, and Inside Track is hoping to get it right this time.

By not giving the record books a close enough examination, we got it wrong a fortnight ago when saying Limerick were coming to Louth for the first time.

The Treaty men had been here on previous occasions, but might, just might, have been playing in Ardee for the first time. Is this a Kildare team’s Ardee debut? We think so, but don’t take it as gospel.

Former player, Glenn Ryan, is in charge and has seen his side blow hot and cold. The Lilies were in Division One last season and an early win over Dublin raised hopes of at least staying in the top tier. But there was nothing much after that – relegation was their lot at the end of the seven-match series.

While the championship didn’t yield anything better, they could at least lay claim to a big win over Sunday’s opponents. And now this year it’s been much the same as before, no two performances the same.

There was a right good display in a defeat to Dublin in the opening round, but then came an off-day, another loss, this time to Cork, and on the day Louth overcame Limerick, Ryan’s side scraped home against Clare.

As with all games Louth and Kildare will contest in the second half of the competition, the points on offer at Ardee carry serious value.