Louth 2-19 Wicklow 0-11

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Louth 2-19 Wicklow 0-11

Wednesday, June 6 2007

THE longest marathon in the Leinster SFC in 16 years came to an end in Croke Park on Sunday.

The bubble burst for Wicklow in a disastrous second half as Louth got the boost of two goals and never looked back.

All the hope, all the promise of the first year of the Mick O’Dwyer era was blown sky high by the two second half majors that finally shattered the confidence of a team that had only recently begun to find its feet.

The shattering part of this defeat is that because of the new rule that discriminates against teams in the lower section of the league it means that for the Garden county the championship season is now over. From the start Louth served notice that they intended to make this their day.

They had three points inside five minutes to set a hot pace.

However, Wicklow responded to the challenge and got the next five points of the match to go two ahead.

While Louth hit back to level the game at 0-5 and then went a point up 0-7 to 0-6 at half-time there was still no sign of a landslide.

However it was Louth midfielder Paddy Keenan who took the match by the scruff of the neck on the restart.

The DCU student sent over three great points inside five minutes of the restart and in doing so probably planted the first seeds of doubt in the minds of the Wicklow men.

But it was goals scored by their two most experienced players afield, JP Rooney and Mark Stanfield, in the 50th and 54th minutes that really shattered Wicklow.

Leighton Glynn tried to lead a revival of sorts and sent over a point but when he tried to bust through for the goal that has eluded Micko’s men in all three Championship matches he ran into a brick wall.

With the pressure off, Eamon McEneaney was able to bring on his five subs and they went on a point-scoring spree in the closing minutes to leave the final score line looking really bad for the Garden.

JP Rooney, Aaron Hoey and Mark Stanfield got Louth off to a flyer in the first four minutes.

It was overlapping wingback Paddy Dalton that boxed over Wicklow’s first point in the sixth minute after good work by Stafford and Gill; Gill had another a minute later and Paul Earls brought the sides level in the eighth minute.

Wicklow were flying at that stage and Tony Hannon pointed a free for a foul on newcomer John McGrath.

John Slattery sent over a point after good work by Thomas Walshe to put Wicklow two up in the 11th minute. Rooney pointed a Louth free in the 15th minute and Hoey levelled the game again in the 21st minute.

John McGrath got his first point in championship football after Jacko Dalton and Gill had done the spade work to restore the Wicklow lead, but in the remaining two minutes Hoey (a free) and Stanfield had points to edge Louth one up at the break.

Keenan hit three points in the first four minutes of the second half. It was the sort of blitz that needed an immediate response, but none was forthcoming.

Stanfield stretched the lead to five with a point in the 46th minute but the first signs of a Wicklow fight back came when Hannon pointed a free in the 48th minute and Paul Earls added one from play.

That Earls score brought the Wicklow fans in the 78,000 crowd to their feet again but the cheers died in their throats a minute later when the experienced JP Rooney squeezed through a shot from close range for the first goal.

Even then Wicklow attempted a response and Leighton Glynn raced through to score a point. But the end came in the 54th minute of the second half when Stanfield outjumped everyone to box home goal number two.

The game was over as a contest. Tony Hannon pointed a free in the 66th minute and Thomas Walsh kicked one from play in the 69th minute.

Four late Louth subs all got their names on the scoresheet in injury time.

WICKLOW: Billy Nornan; Ciar·n Hyland, Damien Power, Alan Byrne; John Paul Dalton, Dara ” hAnnaidh, Paddy Dalton (0-1); James Stafford, Thomas Walshe (0-1); Paul Earls (0-2), Leighton Glynn (0-1), John Slattery (0-1); Tony Hannon (0-3), Tommy Gill (0-1), John McGrath (0-1).

Subs: Dean Odlum for Slattery; Brendan ” hAnnaidh for A. Byrne.

LOUTH: Stuart Reynolds; Alan Page, Colin Goss, Jamie Carr; Dessie Finnegan, Peter McGinnity, Ray Finnegan; Paddy Keenan (0-3), Ronan Carroll; Martin Farrelly, Mark Brennan, Mark Stanfield (1-2); Aaron Hoey (0-4), John O’Brien (0-1), JP Rooney (1-2).

Subs: Nickey McDonald (0-1) for Carroll; Christy Grimes (0-1) for Stanfield; Darren Clarke (0-1) for Hoey; Shane Lennon (0-2) for Rooney; David Brennan for D. Finnegan.

REF: Padr·ig Hughes (Armagh).

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