Louth hurlers sunk by late point

Louth fell to an agonisingly late defeat against Armagh in round two of the Nickey Rackard Cup at Páirc Naomh Bríd on Sunday afternoon. 

In a thrilling encounter which had supporters on the edge of their seats until the final whistle, Alex O’Boyle scored the winning point for the visitors in the 71st minute to end any hopes of victory for the Wee County.

Louth were second best from the outset and the Orchard County set the pace with Ciarán Duffy, Liam O’Flaherty, and Stephen Renaghan notching up the first three scores of the game.

However, Louth began to find their rhythm as Conor Murphy got their first point. 

Scores from Darren Geoghegan (3) and Paddy Lynch kept Louth within touching distance of their opponents as O’Boyle (2), Duffy, and Aaron Fox, extended Armagh’s advantage.

The visitors looked to be in control only for Ricky McKeown to break the momentum with a sideline cut and leave it a five-point deficit scoreline at half-time as Louth trailed Armagh 0-7 to 0-12.

Louth began the second half positively with Geoghegan converting two frees within the opening five minutes and Ronan Mulhullond chipping in with a point from play.

Trevor Hilliard’s teams launched a spirited comeback which seen Geoghegan score five times in a row to single-handedly drag his team back into contention, leveling the scores with minutes remaining.

The home side pushed on and were rewarded with a penalty in the closing mintues after Conor Murphy was fouled resulting in Armagh reduced to 14 players due to referee Nicky O’Toole issuing a black.

Armagh ‘keeper Fintan Woods saved the penalty from the Naomh Moninne clubman Geoghegan and kept the Ulster sides' chances of winning alive as O’Boyle stepped up to deal the final blow to Louth in the closing seconds of the game.

Louth joint team captain, Peter Fortune, was disheartened by the result but hugely encouraged by the performance as he praised his teammates for a gallant effort against the Orchard County.

When reflecting after the game the forward said: “We had the opportunities and unfortunately, we just didn’t take them and at this level, you can’t get away with that. When you get your opportunities, you have to take them.”

“Armagh are a good side they have been up in this division for a long time now, and we knew we were going to have to bring a serious effort to get over the line.

“I always say to the lads that I’d rather be making those chances and not taking them, than not getting them at all.

“So, look there’s positives and negatives to take from today but the structure of this competition means we just have to park that now and getting going again into next week,” he said.

“Look sport is a matter of inches and the ball can bounce one way for you and you're a hero and it can bounce the other way and you're a villain. Unfortunately, today it just didn’t break our way.

He added: “It is fierce disheartening but, in another way, we are trying to take the positives out of it. We are only up at this level a couple of years now and we are holding our own against these teams.”

After a slow start from Louth found their stride in the game. Fortune praised the character of his teammates for never giving up and spoke of pride for captaining and representing his county.

He said: “It is something that has been a challenge for us this year is starting games, something that we’re going to have to rectify going forward.

“But I think one thing it also highlights is the character that this team has. No matter where we are even in the second half we got it back to three at one time and then it was back out to six and we just kept going.

“We will keep going until the seventy-fifth or seventy-sixth minute and whether that gets us over the line or unfortunately like today just fall short,” he continued.

“This team one thing it has is that it never gives up and the character the boys have is phenomenal. I am very proud to get to lead this team with Andrew Smith and I’m very proud to wear this jersey and represent Louth.”

Louth has three important fixtures coming up with two of them at home to Mayo and Donegal, and one away to Monaghan. Fortune is taking it one game at a time and not looking beyond Mayo this Saturday.

He said: “That’s the nature of these competitions. I remember saying before that anything can happen in these group competitions, you can be out of them at one stage and a shock result here or there and you never know.

“We’re just taking it game by game and we know that we have to bring that effort if not more going forward.

“I’m sure if we can replicate performances like that and effort levels like that, we will start turning those losses into wins.”

He concluded by saying: “For me, it is always what’s the next game.

“I couldn’t have told you what was the next game after Armagh because it was full focus on Armagh so it’s going to be the same with the next game, it’s going to be full focus on them.

“We are competing at this level we’re going out to win every game. We want to get six points before the end of this year and we are not going to target any team in particular.

“We’re going to go to every game and prepare professionally, be ready for that game and try and get a win for Louth.

Louth: Conor Clancy; Andrew Smyth, Conor Quigley, Ronan Mulholland 0-1; George Allen, Adam Plunkett, Aaron McGuinness; Stephen Kettle, Seán Hodgins; Conor Murphy 0-1, Darren Geoghegan 0-13 (8f, 1 65), Ricky McKeown 0-1; Paddy Lynch 0-1, James Costelloe, Peter Fortune (c).

Substitutes: John Casey for Hodgins (30), Thomas McCreesh for McKeown (HT), David Stephenson for Costelloe (45), Kyle Rafferty for Mulholland (50), Dylan Carey for McGuinness (64).

Armagh: Fintan Woods; David Ryan, Paul Gaffney 0-1, Niall Lennon; Kieran McKernan, Liam O’Flaherty 0-1, Tiarnán Nevin; Barry Shortt, Aaron Fox 0-2; Dillion Fox, Stephen Renaghan 0-1, Alex O’Boyle 0-10 (8f); Joe O’Connor, Seán Óg McGuinness, Ciarán Duffy 0-2.

Substitutes: Fionntán Donnelly 0-1 for O’Connor (23), Tam McKavanagh for O’Flaherty (70), Kane Laverty for McGuinness (70).

Referee: Nicky O’Toole (Waterford).