Louth “will move on” from Donegal defeat says McArdle

Louth senior hurlers were second best to a strong Donegal outfit at PPFS Darver on Sunday.

Speaking after the game, joint manager Paddy McArdle said: “Yeah, tough day surely. Couldn't get going in the first half, or worse, in the second half. We'll have a look at it over the next couple of days, and what went wrong.

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“They got a man sent off, and we still, we actually hurled worse when we had the extra man. But again, that's a good team.

“That's what we have to get to, that's the level we have to get to over the next few weeks. Leading into that, Nicky Rackard, we know what we're up against.

“There's a few positives taken from today and a lot of negatives, but we're not too worried about it. We'll park that one and move on to the next one.”

Louth have faced stern opposition in recent weeks, and McArdle was quick to point that out.

“Absolutely, and last week's opposition was a Christy Ring side as well. So it's not as if we're getting soft teams here; we're getting good competition every week.

“Some days we rise to the challenge, some days we don't. Today we didn't, unfortunately.

“Going onto the field at the start of the game, I genuinely thought we were good enough to compete with them.

“Now you would have seen there after 70 minutes, we're a wee bit off them. But there's not a lot we'll have to correct there to get up to that level.”

There were concerns when defender Sean Hodgins was substituted early.

“No, no, lads just picked up a few knocks in the game. There's nothing really to worry about. It's just a few ongoing issues, stuff that you're trying to patch up as the season goes on.

“But we'll actually welcome it with a bit of a break now for a couple of weeks before the last game again. So no, there's nothing really too much to worry about.”

The closing stages brought an incident on the sideline that resulted in McArdle being sent off by the referee. The Louth manager was composed in his reaction afterwards.

“There was very little in it. He thought there was plenty in it, but I didn't. So we'll get a look at it again, at the game, we'll get a look at it and see where that went.

“I suppose I'll have to appeal it or whatever, but no, I'm not too worried about it to be honest.”

There is no time for lingering disappointment. The schedule does not allow it.

“It doesn't change. Tuesday and Thursday, we'll get at it again and see where we're at, and we'll go again. But yeah, we have to go up next, so it should be a tough game.”