Inside Track: Louth struggle to put Clare away

Louth senior footballers got the expected win at O’Moore Park, Portlaoise, beating Clare by three points, 2-17 to 2-14, and are now just one of a dozen counties left with a chance of winning the All-Ireland.

Job done, but not in the tidiest of fashions. Indeed, it wouldn’t be wide of the mark to say it was the least convincing performance of any this season, maybe even taking its place behind some of those that ended in defeat in both league and championship.

Clare should have been put away long before the final whistle, but weren’t.

READ NEXT: Inside Track: Four Louth under-20 players named on the country’s top team

On the way, it seemed, to an easy win at half-time and again deep into the second half, ahead by eight points at one stage, Ger Brennan’s side found themselves having to absorb a lot of pressure in the dying minutes as Clare chased scores that would keep them in the competition and dump Louth out of the championship.

There was lots of good to pick from the display, like Niall McDonnell’s heroics in goals, Ciaran Downey’s scores, Sam Mulroy’s couple of two-pointers, Peter Lynch recapturing his very best form at centre-half, and Dara McDonnell making the best of the confidence the selectors placed in him.

There was also a nice fightback after Clare had taken off like a scalded cat, claiming the game’s first three points and keeping their opponents scoreless until the 11th minute.

But even some of those mentioned above were guilty of glaring and costly mistakes, failure to find a colleague with the simplest of passes being the one that caused a good-sized travelling party the most frustration.

Missed goal chances were also part of the after-match debate, as was Tommy Durnin falling short of the heights expected from him.

The now-St Mary’s clubman has been such a pivotal figure in all that’s been good about the season; but while he put in a number of good catches, he was very much a peripheral figure.

It needed Dara McDonnell’s presence to prevent midfield from being a wipe-out.

Ciarán Keenan and Ryan Burns were inflicted with the corner-forward’s curse, both being replaced – while Downey, Conor Grimes and Craig Lennon were others up front who didn’t see out the game.

Lennon shipped an injury, as did goalkeeper McDonnell. It goes without saying that the chances of Louth seeing beyond next weekend’s match will be diminished if neither is fit to take part.

Conor Brannigan made an impression when he came on, claiming two points – without these scores, there’d have been a danger of a two-pointer late on swinging the game in Clare’s favour.

The Newtown Blues player’s showing was a reminder of what he achieved in Inniskeen in the league defeat of Meath earlier this year.

Is a hectic schedule beginning to take its toll? Legs don’t seem to be going as fast as before, especially late on. Compare the finish some of the Louthmen turned in with Clare’s Ikem Ugwuero.

Here was one who was going with the same speed in the last quarter as he was when setting out. He spelt danger every time he was on the ball, his side-step leaving several Louth players for dead. He was man-of-the-match.

Probably the busiest in the Louth camp before the weekend will be the medical staff. They’ll have aching bodies to tend to – hopefully they’ll have the touch to get McDonnell and Lennon restored to full health and get pep back into the others’ step.

As inferred earlier, it wasn’t all gloom on Sunday. There was 2-17 on the board at the finish, and a first 35 minutes which had Ciarán Downey produce as good as anything we’ve seen in a while.

There was his orchestrating of the forward-line, his movement and, above all, his scores,

These mounted to 1-5, which included a two-pointer and a goal which had all the hallmarks of the one Craig Lennon pulled from the hat in the Leinster final defeat of Meath – a run through the middle and wham!, the Clare goalkeeper left to look on as the ball whizzed to the net.

It was while making one of a number of goal-savers that Niall McDonnell shipped the injury that had him heading for the bench before the finish. His kick-outs were nearly always spot-on.

The faith management placed in Peter Lynch, after the Roche player had struggled against Down a fortnight earlier, paid a rich dividend. He was more than a bush in the gap at No 6, taking lots from his runs into the Clare half of the field.

Before finishing, let’s take a look at the big picture. In the first half of the season there was a Division Two-protecting league campaign and after that a successful charge through the Leinster Championship.

Qualification for the second phase of the All-Ireland series has been achieved, and now comes a meeting with one of the country’s big guns.

What is there to stop supporters from again getting on their bikes this weekend?