Louth “didn't panic” against Orchard County, says McArdle

Louth got their Allianz National Hurling League campaign off to winning ways with a hard-fought victory against Armagh at the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds this afternoon.

A late Armagh goal threatened to turn the afternoon, but the Wee County found the answers when it mattered most.

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Louth joint manager Paddy McArdle shared his thoughts after the game, he said: “I know what this group's about. I know we've come here before, and we're normally on the wrong side of that.

“There's a wee bit of steel in the team this year, there's a wee bit of confidence there. Lads know exactly what they're at, exactly what they're doing.

“And there was no panic setting, we just had to move a few lads about, and we were lucky enough then, we got the few scores rattled off at the end.

“But no, I wouldn't say we didn't panic. The lads didn't panic out in the field, we didn't panic on the lane, so we were happy enough.”

The early exchanges were score-for-score with nothing between the sides for much of the first quarter.

“They actually played two spare men. They took their full forward out and played him in the pocket of space that we were trying to put the ball in.

“So, it actually stifled us for about the first 15 minutes. But then we sent John Casey up on the spare man, and that brought us back into the game again.

“We went man on man at the back. And once we went man on man at the back and they didn't have the extra player up top, it left in, we started picking off a few scores.

“I think we maybe got five or six or seven scores, you know, towards the end of the first half, which actually got us back into the game again. It was level scoring right up until that, until we got John into that half-forward line.”

Conditions and the hill on the Athletic Grounds pitch were factored in long before throw-in.

“We actually chatted to the groundsman here before it, and he told me there's two and a half metres from the goals behind us to the goals up here.

“So, the crossbar down here is where you're standing up there. So, when you're obviously trying to run against gravity, and there's a bit of a wind down the field as well, it's going to be a lot harder.

“We wanted to go the other road. We wanted to play against it in the first half and have it within our backs in the second half. But obviously, Armagh knew how to play on this ground. They were happy to do it the other way about.”

McArdle felt the key difference was composure when his team was under pressure.

“It lacked a wee bit of composure, probably. This is a great group of lads. A deadly group of lads. They're about a long time now.

“You have lads like Conor Murphy there who's still relatively young. He's one of the lads that's here four, five, six, whatever years he's here playing with the county.

“They're getting to know how to win games at this level and play at this level. They talked about it, and they had a good, honest chat during the week.

“How do we go to Armagh and get a win? They’ve got a sheet up in the changing rooms. Everything they said, they ticked it off the day.”

Defender Peter Fortune’s return added authority at the back.

“Excellent game. Done exactly what we were asking. He played sweeper for a wee while in the first half when we talked about that 14 heading away.

“Then we went man-to-man at the back, and he just picked up young Jack Loughran there, who's a super hurler. He hurled him from the front all the time. Deadly game there today.”

Even the red card failed to disrupt their rhythm.

“I actually thought we hurled better when we had 14. To be honest with you, I thought so. We actually hurled seriously well.

“Then, when they got the man sent off, it sort of threw us a wee bit because we'd get into our rhythm. Whenever we got it back then again, obviously, they came back very late on. They levelled it up, and we just kicked on that wee bit at the end.”

A debut goal sealed it and hinted at more to come from the impressive Ciarán McKelvey.

“You can see there. I think it's 1-7 he had today. Showed glimpses of what he's about. If that lad had got more balls, he's still getting to know these lads.

“He's still trying to figure out the lads, how they play, where they play. Once he gets up to speed with it, he's going to be a different option for us.

“He probably should have had two (goals) before it. He got the one at the very end. He was unlucky, I suppose.

“The one that the keeper was off the line, he went up the lane with another one here in the top corner. On another day, he could have had 3-7. He was probably happy enough to get the goal at the end there too.”

Next comes Tyrone, with the venue still undecided.

“We've asked for a number of pitches, but you know what the weather's been like this last couple of weeks there. I think by all means it gives it worse coming in this week. So we're going to have to see where's the best surface for us to play.”