First Faneside championship meeting in over two decades

After Louth’s heart-warming win over Meath in Grattan Park on Saturday last, attention now switches to another Farney County venue. Second round match with Monaghan is coming up in Clones on Sunday, and the result could well determine which of these sides progresses in the All-Ireland series.

It’s a first championship meeting of the counties in over 20 years. League clashes since, but none in the knock-out. That adds piquancy to a tie, which, if it doesn’t pack St Tiernách’s Park, will not have any shortage of travelling supporters.

A little bit of history. Prior to the opening of the back door in 2001, giving every county at least two championship outings, the only way there could have been a meeting of the Faneside counties was if both won their respective provincial titles.

The closest that came to happening was in the distant past – 1914, in fact. Monaghan won in Ulster, beating Fermanagh by 2-4 to 0-2, but in their bid to win in the east, Louth found Wexford much too good, losing by 3-6 to 0-1. Had Louth prevailed in that match, they’d have met Monaghan in the All-Ireland semi-final. In the Wee County’s absence, Monaghan played Wexford and were beaten.

Louth and Wexford had met the previous year, and that, too, resulted in a win for the Strawberry Pickers, who, at the time, were not only supreme in Leinster but on the All-Ireland stage as well. They won six provincial titles on the trot, 1913 to 1918, going on to take the All-Ireland of four occasions

In the years of Louth’s eight Leinster wins, Monaghan weren’t a factor in Ulster, and vice versa. Monaghan have 16 provincials, their most recent coming in 2015.

The first All-Ireland football final to be contested by neighbouring counties was the 1949 meeting of Meath, the winners, and Cavan. The same two counties met five years later, but twelve months before that there was nearly another ‘neighbourly’ clash in the competition’s final round.

It would have been a reality had Louth made a great second half rally pay against Kerry at the semi-final stage. Waiting for the winners were Armagh, who had edged out Roscommon in the other qualifier.

A final said to have had a crowd of upwards on 100,000 – after a gate had been knocked down – might have gone Armagh’s way had they not missed a penalty at a crucial stage. It ended 0-13 to 1-6.

Does Louth border Down? Your writer – not the smartest at geography at school, it must be said – is of the opinion that crossing the border at Omeath on the way to Newry, the postal address is for County Armagh. (Contradictions – maybe verifications – to be sent to the email address at the top of this page.)

If we are neighbours with Down, there was close to being a first championship meeting of the counties in 1960. Down, coming to the fore at the time, won the Ulster title for only the second time, while Louth played Offaly in the Leinster final and were beaten.

Down and Offaly were drawn together in the All-Ireland semi-final, and by winning, Down took another step on the way to first-time All-Ireland glory, beating Kerry in the final.

That’s enough of a look-back for the time being. Of greater Importance is the weekend’s St Tiernách’s Park clash. Monaghan go into it after taking a beating from Kerry in the opening round, and before that, an Ulster Championship preliminary round defeat by Cavan. Further back there was a poor enough league campaign.

The Farney had been the great league survivors, clinging on gallantly to their Division One status over a number of years, sometimes having to wait until the final round. There was no exit from the relegation zone this time, their low point count seeing them make the drop along with Roscommon, destined to play alongside Louth in Division Two next season.

Vinny Corey’s side, however, go into this match with an edge – and, genuine excuses for this being an uncharacteristically poor season so far.

Their knowledge of the venue is better than any other county’s, and that has to be worth something to them. Also, Corey hasn’t been able to field his preferred team, injuries causing havoc. Louth, on a high right now, can’t take anything for granted.