Louth hurlers focused on Westerners

Louth look to secure their first win in the Nicky Rackard Cup when they face Mayo at Páirc Naomh Bríd, Dowdallshill this afternoon. Throw in at 1.00pm.

The Wee County aim to bounce back from last weekend's heartbreaking one point defeat at the hands of rivals Armagh.

Louth lost by six points away to top of the table Roscommon in round one of the competition and are currently in fifth place in the league with no points, ahead of Monaghan, also on zero.

Mayo come into today’s game sitting in third position on two points having picked up a win and a loss in their first couple of ties to date.

The Westerners dished out a heavy 4-24 to 2-8 victory over Monaghan in the opening game but couldn’t get the better of Donegal a fortnight ago as they lost 0-21 to 0-14 in Letterkenny.

Both teams played each other in a National Hurling League Division 3A encounter back in March 2023 when Mayo inflicted a 5-20 to 0-15 defeat over the Reds.

When looking ahead to Saturday’s important clash against the Westerners, Louth joint team captain, Peter Fortune, said: “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.

“For me, it is always what’s the next game. I couldn’t have told you what the next game after Armagh was 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," he said.

Manager Trevor Hilliard has made two changes from the Louth side that fell to a slim defeat against the Orchard County with Thomas McCreesh and John Casey replacing Ricky McKeown and James Costello.

Louth has named their squad for Mayo’s visit as: Conor Clancy; Andrew Smyth, Conor Quigley, Ronan Mulholland; George Allen, Adam Plunkett; Aaron McGuinness, Thomas McCreesh; Stephen Kettle, Seán Hodgins, Darren Geoghegan; Patrick Lynch, Peter Fortune (c), John Casey, Conor Murphy.

Substitutes: Dan O’Neill, Cathal Ryan, Kyle Rafferty, Ricky McKeown, Conor Higgins, Sam Phelan, Conor Whyte, Dylan Carey, David Stephenson, Tadhg Dowdall, Seaghan Conneely

Mayo’s squad is named as: Bobby Douglas; Luke Connor, Oisin Greally, Conor Murray; Conal Hession, David Kenny, Eoghan Collins; Sean Kenny, John Heraty; Sean Regan, Adrian Phillips, Liam Lavin; Shane Boland, Cormac Phillips, Eoin Delaney.

Substitutes: Barry Lane, James Gallagher, Kenny Feeney, Joseph Burke, Sean Mulroy, Shane Crinnigan, Danny Hill, Brendan Sheridan, Evan Heraty, Kealan Gallagher, Matthew Connor.

Referee: Conor Daly (Kildare).

2024 Nicky Rackard Cup Results

Round One: Roscommon 1-20 Louth 1-14. Louth scorers: D. Geoghegan (0-6, 0-06F), C. Murphy (1-1), P. Lynch (0-3), D. Stephenson (0-2), S. Kettle (0-1), T. McCreesh (0-1).

Round Two: Louth 0-17 Armagh 0-18. Louth scorers: D. Geoghegan (0-13, 0-8F, 1 65), R. Mulholland (0-1), C. Murphy (0-1), R. McKeown (0-1), P. Lynch (0-1).

2024 Nicky Rackard Cup Fixtures

Round Three: Louth vs. Mayo – 27.04.24 - Dowdallshill – 1PM. Round Four: Monaghan vs. Louth – 11.05.24 - Inniskeen – Time: TBC. Round Five: Louth vs. Donegal – 27.05.24 - Dowdallshill – Time: TBC