Gaelic Games

Louth go through but take time to shake off Antrim

All-Ireland SFC Qualifiers Round One: Louth 1-17 Antrim 1-11

Sun Jun 30 2013 - 16:45

Hot favourites Louth led from start to finish at the Gaelic Grounds on Saturday but only managed to shake off a gritty Antrim challenge in the closing stages of an error-ridden contest.

Touted as "home bankers", Aidan O'Rourke's side carved out commanding leads in both halves – six points in the first and a whopping seven-point cushion after 48 minutes – but the visitors steadfastly refused to throw in the towel on what has been a frustrating first season for Frank Dawson.

A well-worked and superbly finished 15th minute goal from Ciarán Byrne put the Saffrons on the back foot early as Louth opened a 1-4 to 0-1 lead, but inspired by the strong running of Conor Murray and unerring accuracy of Paddy Cunningham, the Saffrons managed to limit the damage to just four points at the interval, 1-7 to 0-6. However, Louth repeated that bright start in the second period and extended their advantage to what appeared to be a match-winning seven-point margin, 1-11 to 0-7.

But still smarting from the criticism following a tame Ulster Championship exit to Monaghan, Antrim dug deep and were rewarded when Michael Pollock rifled past Neil Gallagher on 49 minutes.

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Buoyed by that reprieve, the visitors closed the gap to just two points with 17 minutes of normal-time remaining, but to Louth's credit, when the hard questions were asked they found another gear, and inspired by Paddy Keenan and Ronan Carroll at midfield and full-forward Shane Lennon, they pulled away in the end.

Tricky first hurdle
That was the main thing for O'Rourke, who was just relieved to sidestep a tricky first hurdle. "I suppose we won't over-analyse the mistakes," he said. "First-round qualifiers are always the same, everyone was very nervous on both sides and there tends to be a lot of mistakes, so it was just about getting over the line and buidling a bit of confidence – anytime you win a qualifier by six points it's a good days work.'

His counterpart Frank Dawson must pick up the pieces of a disappointing season that yielded relegation from Division Three but he was proud of the way his team played.

“We did a lot of things right to win the game, but we just came up short,” he insisted. “I just hope you people (the press) are kinder to the players’ efforts, because I thought they played some brilliant football.”