Louth hurlers lose to Mayo

Louth continue to search for their first victory in the Nicky Rackard Cup after falling to a heavy defeat against Mayo at Páirc Naomh Brid on Saturday afternoon.

Any hopes the Wee County had of building on last week's positive performance against Armagh were dampened as Mayo turned on the style and returned to winning ways with a dominating display after their defeat to table-toppers Donegal.

The Reds were second best for extended periods of the game as the visitors made them pay for mistakes and missed opportunities throughout the clash.

Trevor Hillard's team started poorly and fell behind early to a dominant Mayo side. Despite their best efforts, Louth found themselves trailing by five points after twenty minutes and struggled to cope with Mayo's attacking threat.

The Westerners further increased their advantage when Eoin Delaney netted their first goal in the 23rd minute as the visitors maintained their dominance for the first half and held a commanding lead of 1-13 to 0-7 at the interval.

Cormac Philips proved to be the difference for the visitors, with a brace of goals in the second half he effectively shut the door on Louth's comeback hopes.

Though Louth rallied with six points in the last ten minutes, Mayo's decisive goals secured a well-deserved win. Mayo asserted their authority from the start and were fluid and clinical in their movements and finishing. 

The Connacht men knocked over scores from all over the park including goalkeeper Bobby Douglas (0-3, 3f), and defenders Oisín Greally, David Kenny, and Eoghan Collins getting on the scoresheet.

Forwards Seán Regan, Shane Boland, Cormac Phillips, and Eoin Delaney chalked up an impressive 3-12 between the four of them. 

Louth relied heavily on Darren Geoghegan's (0-5, 4f) accuracy from frees to stay in contention as Mayo continued to attack.

Contributions came from Aaron McGuinness; Stephen Kettle, Paddy Lynch; Peter Fortune, John Casey, Dylan Carey, and Ricky McKeown late in the game.

Mayo's comprehensive victory highlighted their superiority on the field, handing Louth their most significant defeat of the competition season thus far.

Following this defeat Louth's campaign continues to be an upwards battle as they have failed to secure any points on the board after their opening three games.

Although the defeat will sting for a while - the Wee County will look to regroup and learn from this experience as they aim to register a win in their next fixture away to Monaghan in a fortnight.

Louth boss Hilliard shared his thoughts after a tough defeat against the Westerners. “It was a difficult outing. We can see two teams Donegal and Mayo have probably shown that they are a wee bit better than the rest,” he began.

“It was a difficult day for me today. We went out with the breeze hoping to maybe build up a score but Mayo came out firing early on.

“The lead they had going in at halftime was always going to be hard to pull back with a breeze like that in the second half.

“Probably overall we can see a wee bit of different class in the likes of Mayo. You can't take it away from them, they played well today,” said Hilliard.

“You had to play with precaution early because you know the level that Mayo have. So, the last day we kept it tight and we knew we had to do the same today.

“The ball that Mayo was hitting today wasn't a straight ball down the line. Each and every time the five, seven, ten, twelve, they turned to the inside each time and worked the ball to the far side of the field.

Louth have two crucial games remaining in the competition away against Monaghan next followed by a final game against Donegal. When looking ahead to the schedule the manager said: “Going forward now we have two massive games.

“Monaghan comes in two weeks time and is going to be the big one in Inniskeen so we have to look and get ready for that. 

“Hopefully, we can pick up two points there. It is a must-win game for us but it will come down to score difference probably now.

“Today you look at the score it doesn't show great. I fancy Monaghan to beat Armagh in the last game because we felt that last week that we left this game behind us. 

“It's disappointing to be still with no points when we definitely think we should have two heading into the Monaghan game.

“I know them inside out so there's not a player that I don't know. I've played against them all myself along with watching them. I've watched them twice or three times this year.

“We can see that last week we should have gotten over the line. We look at the Armagh game in the league and it is very disappointing that we didn't win that day too.

“We know we are working from a small enough panel. We know that there are more players in the county that should be coming into the panel that aren't here."

Louth: Conor Clancy; Andrew Smyth, Conor Quigley, Ronan Mulholland; George Allen, Adam Plunkett, Aaron McGuinness (0-1); Thomas McCreesh, Stephen Kettle (0-2); Seán Hodgins, Darren Geoghegan (0-5, 4f), Paddy Lynch (0-2, 1f); Peter Fortune (0-1), John Casey (0-2), Conor Murphy.

Substitutes: Conor Higgins for McCreesh (51), Cathal Ryan for Hodgins (57), Dylan Carey (0-3, 2f) for Murphy (61), David Stephenson for Casey (63), Ricky McKeown (0-1) for Geoghegan (63).

Mayo: Bobby Douglas (0-3, 3f); Luke Connor, Oisín Greally (0-1), Conor Murray; Conal Hessian, David Kenny (0-1), Eoghan Collins (0-2); Seán Kenny, John Hearty; Seán Regan (0-2), Adrian Phillips, Liam Lavin; Shane Boland (0-5, 2f), Cormac Phillips (2-5, 0-4f, 0-1 65), Eoin Delaney (1-1).

Substitutes: Brendan Sheridan for Delaney (46), Kenny Feeney (0-2) for A Phillips (46), Barry Lane for Douglas (51), Seán Mulroy for Hession (55), Shane Crinnigan for S Kenny (63).

Referee: Conor Daly (Kildare).