Louth's Hilliard reflects on hurlers victory Ernesiders

Louth senior hurling manager Trevor Hilliard expressed his satisfaction after his side's 2-18 to 1-12 victory over Fermanagh at Dowdallshill on Saturday afternoon.  

Speaking to the Dundalk Democrat after the game, Hilliard stressed the importance of securing a win in their opening fixture and highlighted the team’s transformation in the second half. 

He said: “We are after playing a couple of challenge matches and I was mindful of the way we were coming out at the start of some of the games.  

“We were slow to get out of the traps. We thought in the warmup that there was a bit of an edge to it, and we were hoping we were going to get out of the blocks early. 

“We didn’t get out of the blocks early, so we made it hard again for ourselves. Like in one of the challenge matches against Armagh we made it very hard for ourselves.” 

Trailing by three points at halftime, Louth struggled to find rhythm early on. Hilliard pointed to wasted opportunities and poor decision-making in the opening 35 minutes. 

“We probably wasted a lot of the ball in the first half with some of the decision making,” said Hilliard. “The decision making in the second half was completely different. We got in there and got a word into them. 

“We were totally off the game plan of what we were trying to do in the first half. Some boys were probably trying to do their own thing. 

“We came back at it in the second half, we had a chat at half time, and we made sure that we corrected that. The lads in fairness to them, we can only do so much talking, but they corrected it well themselves.”

The second half was a different story, with Louth putting in a commanding performance to overturn the deficit. 

The manager explained: “It wasn’t that we were more direct, it was where you put the ball, and the runs that were made were the right runs. 

“In the first half I think there were balls going in high they were lobbing in. At least in the second half we put a bit of energy in there. 

“Peter Fortune went in then in the second half to the full forward line and he orchestrated the boys working around him.” 

According to Hilliard it was work rate that was key to the turnaround. He said: “The most important thing for me was we turned the ball over then.  

“It is not just about the boys getting the scores on the board, it is about the work rate. The work rate out of Ben Goss in the middle of the field and then Conor Murphy came into the game well in the second half. 

“Some of his turnovers and his work rate upped, and Darren Geoghegan coming out to centre half picking off one or two scores. These are the things that you need but it all comes down to work rate each time.” 

Louth’s two second-half goals proved decisive, with Hilliard praising the team’s build-up play and composure in front of goal. 

He said: “Two good goals and it was great play up the field for both of them. You could see when Peter (Fortune) was up there he took the right option and gave it to David (Stephenson) and it was a clean strike. 

“We have been working hard on creating goal chances because what you are trying to do is open up a team early and that is what I wanted in the first half, we got it in the second half but at least we got there. 

“Fermanagh are a sticky enough team I even said it from the word go. They were ahead for a long part in the game, three points up at half-time. 

“We still had a lot of work to do, and I think this comes from the training that the boys have done. We finished the game strong and that is the main thing – finishing the game strong.” 

Looking ahead, Louth face an away clash with Monaghan next week, and Hilliard is eager to see a more consistent performance from his side. 

“We are straight back next week against Monaghan. People call it a bit of a derby match, but we want to see the way they played in the second half to be implemented across the whole game and not just in patches. 

“To me today is two points, next week hopefully is two points, we set our platform at the start of the year that we wanted four points, and that is what we are going after.” 

Louth’s campaign is off to a strong start, but Hilliard knows there’s still work to do to build momentum in the weeks ahead.