Hilliard is happy with how his Louth hurlers are stepping up

Louth senior hurling manager Trevor Hilliard was in high spirits after his side’s commanding 0-30 to 2-10 victory over Lancashire at the GAA Centre of Excellence in Abbotstown on Saturday afternoon.

The result keeps the Wee County unbeaten in the Allianz National Hurling League, Division 4, with four wins and a draw from their five games.

Hilliard was pleased with how his side played in the near-perfect conditions and noted that the pitch played a big role in Louth’s performance.

He said: “The surface here in Abbotstown is very good and it is a big wide field. I knew with the conditions that it was probably going to suit us.

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“We have been playing on sticky enough ground. Darver last week was very sticky, and we could move the ball a lot quicker today. Our first touch was a lot faster.

“The delivery into the full forward line was earlier, there was no need for the extra touch or the extra pass coming up the lines.

“The ball was delivered up the line and you could see the way some of the boys stood up up top taking the points early in the first half.

“Along with that, if the score wasn’t on, I thought we recycled the ball very well until we got into a good scoring zone.”

Hard work pays off

The manager was keen to highlight the effort being put in by his squad both in training and during matches.

He said: “We are working every night, and we are pushing each other. You can see with the lads coming on today they are pushing each other.

“We are trying to get a set play that everyone can get used to, even the lads coming in. It clicked there at times in the first half, maybe for 15 minutes.

“We went off it a wee bit in the second half for maybe ten or 15 minutes but at that stage we had a couple of changes made.

“We needed to loosen up just slightly so I would like to make sure when we are at it then we stay at it.”

Fast start

The Wee County took control of the game early and Hilliard noted that Lancashire remained in touch mainly thanks to scoring frees.

“The frees kept them in the game in the first half and it is probably something that we are going to look at. Last week again we had the same referee, and we will have to take a look at giving away them soft frees.

“But we were definitely on the front foot from the word go here. We said coming here today that we want to be starting from early and coming out and take the game to them - we surely did that.”

Strong finish

While the Reds slackened somewhat in the second half, Hilliard was pleased with how his team continued to put points on the board.

“You are always going to hit a slump at some stage in the game when someone might get a foothold. I am disappointed that we conceded the second goal.

“They ended up playing with two up top and that gave them the space to get that second goal. On our own side, we had a couple of goal chances but I was happy enough with the way the lads were chipping away getting the points.

“The goals will always come when the right opportunity comes. We are happy enough that we knocked over 30 points today. 

“We have been doing good scoring in a good lot of games. Last week was probably a bit of a dip.

“You can take that dip any way you want but you have to look at Leitrim dogged into us last week so the conditions like this here suit us much better.”

Standout performances

Hilliard singled out several players for their performances, including Peter Fortune, who put in a superb performance and scored four points.

“Yeah definitely Peter Fortune up front, and I thought Thomas McCreesh took ten minutes to come into the game – I thought he came into the game flying then.

“We had the half-back line that was going well. Leon (Fox) got a knock and Aaron McGuinness stood up then.

“You have Conor Murphy coming running at them getting scores and Sean Flynn was excellent, his work rate all over the field was excellent.

“Smithy (Andrew Smyth) is out this week with a hand injury and Sean Hodgins steps up coming in. It’s tough to come in after playing no games and then all of a sudden playing half back today and he played very well.

“And John Casey at cornerback, so we were happy with a lot of boys’ performances but every game you have to step it up.”

The opposition

Hilliard admitted there was some uncertainty about what to expect from their opponents, given the nature of the unpredictability of their squad.

“When I looked at the programme, I wasn’t sure what we had. Each week, and it is the same with Warwickshire, you don’t know what players they are going to have.

“The two corner forwards I was expecting them to have, they didn’t have. They had two new lads and a fella from Antrim playing on the wing.

“That is the way them teams are. It is great to see that they are still pushing and they will do rightly in the Lory Meagher.”

Looking ahead to Longford

With one game left in the National League, Louth are determined to finish their Division 4 campaign unbeaten when they host Longford at Dowdallshill this weekend.

“We are going to go into the game with the same attitude as today. We are hoping to go unbeaten in it. We are not going to ease off next week, we will be still going with as strong a team as what is fit.

“Obviously, we picked up a few knocks today - Peter Fortune, Mark Gahan, and then with Smithy out, Adam Plunkett not here today, or Brian Corcoran.

“We picked up a lot of knocks now in the last two weeks, so hopefully these lads are ready to get a bit of game time next week and get ready for the final.”