Louth manager Paul Hanlon delighted by his team’s best performance of the year

Not only did they come through the must-win game against Longford at Darver on Friday night but they did so in a manner that will send them into the junior championship final against Carlow full of confidence.

At the start of the second half, Louth’s prospects were very much in the balance as they trailed by two points against a Longford side who had grown into the game. However, the Wee county turned on the style after the restart and with the help of goals by Aoife Russell and Kate Flood, they crushed the Midlanders’ hopes.

“That’s the best I have seen them play all year, especially in the second half, and I am delighted that we got through in the end,” said the Cooley man.

“Our forwards didn’t really shine last week against Kilkenny but in the second half of that game against Longford, they shone really well. They really were excellent.

“In the first half, we were getting the ball up but just weren’t picking up the final pass or finishing the move, but in the second half they just knew exactly where to be and they won every ball that was kicked into them.”

The failure to get the reward in the first half meant that Louth trailed at the break but they didn’t panic and reasserted themselves after the turnaround.

“We probably should have been ahead at half time as we started really well. We should have had another four or five points and although it didn’t happen for us, we weren’t going to panic. We had the advantage of a slight wind in the second half and at the break, we showed the girls a few things, particularly in relation to kickouts,” added Hanlon who was delighted to see the benefit of the work put in during the week by the coaching team.

“Darren (Clarke) and Alan (Page) were super for us as they had the Longford girls figured out and we knew exactly where they were kicking the ball to. They had done a lot of analysis and reminded the girls of that at the break. As a result, we were able to push up on them and put a lot of pressure on as we knew where the ball was going from the kickouts.

“We got a super goal from Aoife Russell after half-time and that really settled us. It was a great performance and we are looking forward to the final.

“Carlow beat us already in the first group game but we didn’t really shine that day. We will be doing our homework on them over the coming days and will be working hard in training to make sure we are ready.”