Campbell: Win ends years of pain and hurt for Louth

It’s hard to put it into words, but that’s exactly what Louth defender Dermot Campbell tried to do as he stood outside a dressing room filled with roars, hugs, and disbelief. 

The Wee County has waited since 1957 to get their hands on the Delaney Cup again, and now, finally, it’s back in Louth. 

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Barley able to gather himself, he said: “Unbelievable, unbelievable. No, I don't want to get sunk in at all. Trying to catch my breath. 

“I'm actually glad you took me out there. I'm going to have a heart attack. It's just unreal. Unbelievable, what a game.

“I still would be saying we actually didn't give our best foot forward there, but in fairness to Meath, they came at us well, and the goal just kept us in it in the first half.

“We changed a couple of things at half-time in terms of the kick-out. We felt like they were getting their kick-out way too easily in the first half. 

“We were struggling a little bit on ours, so we went after that in the second half. I really thought there was only one team in the second half.

“Bar a couple of minutes early in the second half when Meath got the two-pointer and the one, but we knew they were going to keep coming at us. 

“Really good team, young team. I thought we held the ball really, really well there in the last couple of minutes.

“Not that we were looking to do that. We were looking to probably create scores and stuff, but it's just the way the game panned out. 

“Meath kept coming at us, pressed us as we knew they would. It was just unreal, just dug it out at the end.”

Preparation

Game management in the final minutes was textbook, and Louth’s preparation paid off when it mattered most.

“We'd done it so well. We spent so much time in the last two weeks working on scenarios, working on what-ifs, and I just think that really paid off. 

“Sat in a hotel on Tuesday night for four hours together, just running through what-ifs, scenarios.

“What do we do if we're two points down, what do we do if we're one point down, what do we do if we're two points up in the last couple of minutes.

“As I said, I don't think we were planning to keep the ball for whatever it was at the end there, three or four minutes, but it just shows the composure in the team,

“The experience, the skill level, and just the communication with each other to not have any three-up reaches or lose possession at the middle third.

“I know we probably did gift them the goal a little bit. I don't know what exactly happened, but as I said, in fairness to Meath, they pushed us all the way. 

“They shaded it in the first half without a doubt, but I really thought in the second half it was all of us.

“It was just about being clinical because we probably scored the goals in the first half, we probably left a little bit behind us, we were a little bit scrappy in attack.

“And as I said, in fairness to Meath, they're a big physical team, they stripped us of possession quite a bit. 

“So, we were just trying to learn from that, not take the ball into contact against them, and thankfully we did that in the end.”

Goals

The turning point in the first half came from Craig Lennon’s stunning goal, one of three Louth netted before the break to keep Meath within touching distance.

“Unbelievable, top bins, he's class, he's unreal. What a man to have in your team, what an ace to have in your pack. We know if we can get him on the ball and the boys are creating runs off him.

"He's either slipping into them or they're acting as decoys, and it's just open up, and then to have the technique to finish, I think it was off the laces.

“’Burnsy’ (Ryan Burns) was really slick with his one as well, and again the penalty, and I thought for those three or four goal chances, we were so slick in attack.

“But then there were other times where we weren't, and there was a pass off, or we were maybe running in ones, a little bit static in the first half, but again we sorted all that.

“I thought the subs that came in in the second half were unbelievable, ‘Kiki’ (Ciaran Keenan), Paul (Mathews).

“I can't even remember who else, Emmet (Carolan) came on there at the end, there was a couple more, Dara McDonnell, unreal experience. 

“Those young lads, himself and Kieran McArdle, didn't look out of place at all, and it's just great times for us.”

Lessons learned

Campbell admitted that previous disappointments helped this team remain calm even when they missed a few chances after half-time.

“I think we kicked four wide or something in the first five or ten minutes of the second half, which was again, you're being positive saying we created them, and we got on top of our kick-out,

“But after a while you need to start nailing them, and thankfully we did settle a few, and yeah, experience probably told in the end, we knew it was a 50-50 game.

“Obviously, Meath did the hard thing of beating Dublin, and again, we were coming into this thinking it was a massive chance, but so were they.

“We knew it was just going to be a kick of a ball at the end of it. They're a really good team, a couple of boys back there that weren't playing in the league, a real handful up front.

“Big men around the middle as I said, so yeah, just whatever about winning the Leinster final, but to beat Meath in a Leinster final, it's a serious achievement for us, but it's so, so sweet, it's unreal.”

Louth success

The recent success of Louth’s U20s and minors hasn’t gone unnoticed. Campbell, who works closely with some of them in Ardee Community School, says they’ve been a huge inspiration.

“Yeah, so much, like starting with the U20s, what a group of players, fortunate enough to have been involved with some of those boys, with the school this year, Ardee Community School.

“Real leaders in that team, like Keelin Martin and 'Gilla' (Adam Gillespie), a few of the lads there, there's more that I haven't mentioned.

“But the future is seriously bright, and they definitely inspired us, we're so proud of them, because as I said, I've seen them first-hand for the last couple of months in terms of training with the school and playing with the school.

“We knew between what was in the Joes, CBS in the Joes, that there was a serious crop of 20s coming through, a load of lads that were underage from last year.

“That's positive again, because there's a load of those underage again next year, and with the minors, I went to watch them a couple of times, the same thing.

“I have a good lot of those in the school with me and Ardee, and they're unreal, just really coachable lads on both teams.

“My experience from working with those two groups of players is just so coachable, and as I said, they inspired us, and thankfully, I think we're going to inspire generations and years to come now as well.”

Full time

As the final whistle blew, Campbell admitted that the moment was almost too much to take in.

“It's unreal, it's unbelievable, someone's going to have a heart attack out there at the end there when we're celebrating in the hill, in front of the hill and stuff, but it hasn't sunk in.”

There was tension right up until the last kick of the ball, but Louth held their nerve, and the rest is now history.

“Yeah, it's one of those moments, as I said, I thought we held the ball so well in those last few minutes, and then we brought it down nearly to our full back, and you were thinking, oh God, but again we held it really well.

“The ball went to Donal (McKenny), he won us a free right, he's so pulled, he's so powerful there, and then we just, yeah, we got the ball out on the hooter.

“All those years of pain and all those years of hurt, thankfully it didn't come back to bite us, because I thought we showed grit and a bit of balls there at the end.

“I know with the goal maybe it could have been a sucker punch, and probably our own supporters were thinking here we go again, same old, same old. 

“But this team doesn't lie down, it's full of great leaders, it's full of great characters and great players.

“And yeah, we just gathered ourselves, we dusted ourselves off, we held the ball, and we worked our score, and it's just unreal, yeah, unbelievable.”