Inside Track: Louth’s 1994 win over Tyrone had an All-Ireland scoreline

It’s been established that the last Louth win over Tyrone prior to the recent one was in 1994. (It’s becoming a Louth habit of recent years, obliterating unwanted records, such as regaining senior and under-20 championships, getting the better of Meath in the senior knock-out, and now this one. All of them have come after a long wait.)

The Tyrone win was in the third round of the 1994/’95 league, and maintained Louth’s good start to the competition. The opening match had resulted in 1-17 to 0-15 win over Galway in St Brigid’s Park, followed by the defeat of another Connacht team.

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The tie with Mayo was at McHale Park, Castlebar, and six points from Stefan White and 1-1 falling to Colin Kelly comprised the bigger part of a 1-8 score (to Mayo’s 1-4). The other point came from Ardee’s Brendan Kerin.)

A huge crowd travelled to Ennis for the following match, for which Louth were warm favourites. But not only did a Tom Morrissey-inspired Clare team win, they confined Louth to just four points. The winter break for the Paul Kenny-coached side after that couldn’t have come at a better time.

Refreshed, Louth opened the second half of the competition with a 1-9 to 0-9 win over Armagh in Lurgan, a game which marked Gareth O’Neill’s first outing at full-back, the then-Cooley Kickham having swopped the tangerine jersey for a red one.

This was all Division Two stuff; and with eight points from a possible ten, Louth sights were firmly set on getting up among the big boys. The meeting with Limerick did nothing to dampen expectations – the 1-8 to 0-4 win only heightened them.

And so to the last round. It was at Pairc Uí Chaoimh, and with Cork out of the running for promotion, it wasn’t viewed as the most difficult proposition.

However, the absence of regular goalie, Niall O’Donnell, would prove fatal. Cork claimed two goals that would, in all probability, have been easy meat for the big man.

Nervousness, more than anything else, got the better of St Mary’s Dessie Woods in his first game for the seniors. It ended 2-6 to 0-8.

But all wasn’t lost. Ten points were enough to force a play-off with none other than Tyrone, who, after the Louth defeat, went on a winning run, they, too, finishing on double figures.

O’Donnell was back in goals for the Clones meeting, and having joined the first 15 in the Armagh match, Pat Butterly lined out at full-forward, flanked by White and Kelly.

By now, Butterly’s Stabannon colleague, David Reilly – who began the league at full-back – was at midfield, alongside Kerin. Seamus O’Hanlon was on the forty.

Louth weren’t a factor against an improving Tyrone side. It finished 1-10 to 0-9. The Red Hands were promoted and the following year made it to the Division One semi-finals, narrowly beaten by their great rivals, Derry.

Louth remained in Division Two for another season, but in the 1996/’97 competition there was a real breakthrough – or so we thought. With Paul Kenny still at the helm, assisted by Terry Lennon, Matt

McDermott and Gerry Sheridan, the Reds put together a fine campaign, winning five of their seven games.

Ten points were enough to give them the title and a place in the quarter-finals of the league proper. The game with Cork was at Portlaoise and resulted in a 1-12 to 0-11 defeat. But not to worry, it’ll be Division One football the following season, supporters thought.

Not so. There was a lot of Croke Park tinkering with the league at the time, and off-season, it was decided to give every county the same status for the 1998/’99 points competition.

There’d be four groups of eight, and finishing positions would determine where teams would play the season after that, the top two in each division in One, third and fourth in Two, and so on.

Back to that game with Tyrone in 1994. It had the same score as the ’57 All-Ireland final, 1-9 to 1-7, Louth scores coming from Alan Rooney 1-1, Stefan White 0-3, Séamus O’Hanlon 0-2, and a point each for Ollie McDonnell, Colin Kelly and Micheál Malone.

The team: Niall O’Donnell; Peter Fitzpatrick, David Reilly, Stephen Melia; Davy McDonnell, Ken Reilly, Gerry Curran; John Osborne, S O’Hanlon; M Malone, Alan Rooney, O McDonnell; Cáthal O’Hanlon, S White, C Kelly. Pat Butterly came in after 16 minutes.