Devlin: Louth won't get carried away

Louth senior footballers produced a top class performance on Saturday evening when they cast aside Cavan 1-22 to 1-12 at Kingspan Breffni Park to keep their Division Two status firmly on track.

Speaking after the game, Louth manager Gavin Devlin said: “After the Meath game and this block of three games, like we were none out of one out of the three, and we had Tyrone come to town next and then a physical game to Cavan.

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“Cavan can be cursing their luck with the fact that they’re only on two league points, and they start off the day ahead with Meath and Cork, they could be very well sitting on six.

“We knew we were going to be up against it here, and we knew that nothing short of our ‘A-game’ would do here today.

“We all know what was riding on this game today. Even in the back of the euphoria beating Tyrone, there was a lot of noise about it.

“We had to get our players' feet back on the ground really quickly because it wasn't of any use today if we'd have come here and lost.

“Obviously, Cork would have won the head-to-head and would have left us in a pretty nasty position in the league. So, it's all inches, isn't it? It's all inches.

“I'm delighted to get a win, but our boys are not going to get carried away and keep their feet on the ground for the next draw because Derry will certainly not be easy in two weeks in Ardee.

Louth conceded the opening score inside seconds, but they owned the first half thereafter.

“For large periods we've done well, but then there's other periods in the game, particularly around the home stretch there, that have that wee bit of angst.

“And the noise up in the crowd, and then you start doing things again that we wouldn't be too happy about.

“For now, we're happy with where we're at, and we will get back on the training field this week again and move on as quickly as possible, and you've got to take your licks in this game.

“We certainly won't be carried away. We didn't get carried away when we were beaten by Cork.

“There's a lot of things we need to say, and it was a disappointing performance, and it wasn't one that we were proud of, but we get that over the course of the league.

“I know our boys are training extremely hard in Darver, and there's other guys there in the stand, and they're not getting minutes at the moment as well, and they're training so hard.

“They're training as hard as everyone out in the field. You feel sorry for them as well because they're all itching to get on, they've got to be patient and wait their time, and they'll get minutes.”

First-half dominance

Louth dictated terms in Cavan

“We had the breeze, and the big thing was the kick-outs, and we felt we had a good grip in the kick-outs. I feel sorry for Cavan because the new game, whenever you lose, you've got that momentum against you, it's hard to shift, isn't it?

“There's a period there in the second half, with ten minutes to go, they got three or four kick-outs in a row.

“So, whenever that momentum goes against you, it's hard to shift it, and you've got to be really calm and controlled and try and just give yourself the best opportunity to get hands on ball.

“It's never been too high or too low because of the wind and the conditions; we had to keep at it and not let up.

“We had to try and stretch the lead as much as we could because we knew going down the home straight in the second half, every score would matter.

“Just thankfully going down the home straight, we had a wee bit of a gap, and we talked about it at half-time to try and keep that gap.

“We talked about going out and trying to win the second half and score for score and not letting them eat too much into our lead too quickly.

“So yeah, look, you have all these ideas, and all these things can change really quickly, and we're just delighted to get the points.”

Cavan comeback

Cavan rallied after the break, but the Wee County remained strong.

“Cavan this year in particular, I feel like Cavan been a really good brand of football. In all threads of the game, they know what they're about, and they know what they're at, and they're hard to break down.

“They play really well in that low block, and they try and create a plus one to the pressure on the ball handlers. We knew we had to bring our best game. Division Two is so competitive and so tight.

“It's again, let's move on quickly to the next game and set it down, get over tonight, get the bodies right.

“You've got to let the lads enjoy it too because there's so much riding on these games and you can feel it in the changing room before we go out.

“It's really good, and it's just such a different energy when you win compared to the narrow defeat we had in Croke Park because that was a difficult moment that night.

“There are times in that second half we were living on the edge, and there are balls ricocheting one way and the other in the box going just inches right of the post on several occasions.

“It looks like a big gap in the scoreboard at the end, but you know, it is, there's small margins and the gap can close really, really quickly on the scoreboard.

“We've seen that with Meath ourselves when we were 11 down, and we went one up in a short space of time, so the scoreboard can drift one way or the other.”

Squad depth

Injuries have bitten Louth with Peter Lynch ruled out for the season and Donal McKenny before throw-in.

“Our three and our six, that’s the heart out of your team, but I had Dara McDonnell back into six tonight, a position he wouldn't really find himself in too often.

“I thought he was immense, and I thought he just shored up the middle of our pitch, fantastic tonight.

“But two serious men to be missing out of any team, but it's what we're trying to do here, we're trying to build a bit of a panel and players who can step in and do different jobs at different times.

“Because in this journey that we're on, we're going to need that, you can't be sticking to the same 15 players week in, week out.”

Derry next

Six points on the board and momentum building.

“We never looked that far down the road, honestly, we just looked at one game at a time. All our focus was coming in here to (Kingspan) Breffni Park tonight to make sure we're at the right end of the table.

“Because after tonight, we could have been at the complete opposite end of the table, but then with the head-to-head.

“We're not going to get carried away. Derry is a serious team; they'll be coming in with great confidence, belief, and probably sitting at the top of the table as well.

“They'll just be totally focused on that game one game at a time, and look, Ardee, we love playing in Ardee, so we'll get well up to that game as well.

“From I started here, our support has been immense over the last four or five years. It just shows you what can be done when players come and put their mind to it, believe in themselves and put the work in.

“To keep moving forward, but it's so easy to stand still or fall back, it's just great to see the energy that is about at the moment.”