"Thank God we prevailed today" says Louth ace Nolan

Louth forward Céire Nolan hailed her side’s resilience after they captured the Lidl LGFA National Football League Division Three title with a hard-fought victory over Antrim LGFA.

Played in difficult and ever-changing conditions, the contest lived up to expectations, and Nolan admitted the Wee County were under no illusions heading into the decider.

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She said: “We know every time we kind of come up against Antrim, we've played them enough now at this stage, we know that every time we come out to play, it's going to be a battle.

“But as Áine (Breen) said in a couple of interviews, whoever works the hardest was going to win, and we're just delighted to come out on top today.

“We actually knew that the wind was going to go one way or the other, so we kind of talked about coming in at halftime and just hoping to keep the score down to a minimum so that hopefully we could get a few points with the wind.

“It was very, very strong, and the conditions kind of changed. We got every season in one here today, but look, we just stuck to the system and tried to work together as a team and thank God we prevailed today.

“We are a very strong running team, and that is something that we're really, really good at, but it's great when you do have the wind, you can kind of experiment a little bit more.

“Maybe not so much in a final, but it's great to be able to try and change up our game, and that's something that we've been really working on and training.

Second half

Trailing by a single point at the interval, but Louth stayed composed, and the game swung after half-time.

A long-range goal from Grace Hoey proved decisive, and the impact from the bench again told as Nolan pointed to the depth within the squad as a defining factor.

“We've always said that we're so confident in finishers coming on to finish the game because we're all training each other and we're pushing each other really, really hard at training.

“So, we have full confidence in our squad, and it's great that everyone who comes on and everyone who starts, it's interchangeable, and we can just all work as a team together, and that's something that is really, really great in the camp.”

Lynch winner

Late drama followed, as the decisive score came from Laura Lynch, who held her nerve when it mattered most.

“It is absolutely, and look, as I said, it did come down, there was mistakes, the ball was slippery, everything that could have happened did happen today.

“But we're very proud that we were able to use our strengths, and well done to Laura, she was absolutely phenomenal to put that under pressure over the bar there at the end.”

Progress

Louth now have three consecutive titles following last year’s Leinster Junior and All-Ireland Junior successes.

“It is, and we did talk about how important it is that we are both promoted, and it's great for the teams. We've come up against Antrim a lot this year, and they're a great team, and it's great that we're both getting promoted.

“They're off to go from Division Four straight up to Division Three and then straight up to Division Two as well. So, it's great that we are both promoted and we can show the progress that is going on in the two counties.

“But at the end of the day, it's lovely to have a piece of silver to come back to Louth and to kind of continue on from the great work that's been going on in all codes in Louth in the past year.”

Championship

Attention now turns quickly to the next challenge, with the league campaign now parked and championship football looming.

“As we've all said previously, look, we feel we are an intermediate team, and we are really, really looking forward to and relishing the challenge to play intermediate football.

“We are very proud of our league campaign, but it is time to kind of put the head down and get out back up and Darver in the next few weeks and focus on the championship.”