Louth’s second half surge against Longford sees them into Leinster LGFA JFC final

Louth made it three Leinster finals in as many weeks for the Wee county as they booked their place in the provincial decider with an impressive win over Longford at Darver on Friday night.

In what was the side’s best display of the season so far, Paul Hanlon’s charges were full value for the victory that sets-up a meeting with Carlow in the final on the weekend of May 18/19.

Aside from a slight wobble in the second quarter, which coincided with Céire Nolan’s spell in the sin bin, Louth were very much in control as they played with an intensity, pace and cohesion that had the visitors on the back foot for much of the hour.

Although they didn’t get the scores their efforts deserved in the first half, and somehow found themselves two points in arrears at the interval, the Reds clicked in front of the posts in the second half to crush the hopes of a Longford side who arrived with high expectations.

It was a fine team display from the hosts and the management team will no doubt be pleased that so many good performances contributed to the win. It was pleasing to see a variety of players providing the inspiration at different times and ensured that Longford were unable to get control.

The energy of Louise Byrne and driving runs of Nolan helped set the tone, while the customary influence of Áine Breen allowed Eimear Byrne and Aoife Halligan the opportunity to drive forward.

The pace at which Louth moved helped open create many gaps, although it was frustrating at times that they didn’t always get the final pass away in the opening half. However, the efforts of Aoife Russell, Kate Flood and Niamh Rice, in particular, got their reward as they punished Longford in the second period.

As good as the hosts were going forward, the home side did find themselves under pressure when Longford attacked at pace. The visitors did carve out a number of openings and it took two excellent saves in the first half from Rebecca Lambe-Fagan to keep them at bay at crucial times.

In what was a winner-takes-all final group game, Louth proved from the opening whistle that they were up for the battle as Byrne landed the first point inside a minute.

Russell (2) and Flood (2) added further points but it was hard believe how Louth’s dominance only resulted in a 0-5 to 0-4 advantage after 20 minutes.

Longford took heart from that and following the 24th minute yellow card for Nolan, they got on top and finished the half with three points from Shauna Hagan, Grace Shannon and Sian Gallagher to lead by 0-7 to 0-5 at the break.

With the game in the balance, it was Louth who grabbed the initiative on 35 minutes as some great work by Mia Duffy at the back allowed Halligan to burst clear and set-up Russell who fired to the roof of the net.

Almost immediately, Flood and Rice added points and when Rachel Leonard-O’Connor set-up Flood to dink the ball over the ’keeper with what is becoming her trademark, outside of the foot finish, the hosts were leading by 2-8 to 0-7 and on their way to the final.

Longford battled to the end and pulled a goal back through Niamh Brady but they made little headway against a Louth side who maintained their intensity to the final whistle and sealed the win with points from Flood (4) and Rice in the final quarter.

LOUTH: Rebecca Lambe-Fagan; Caitlin O’Reilly, Éimear Murray, Céire Nolan; Louise Byrne, Aine Breen, Holly Lambe-Sally; Aoife Halligan, Éimear Byrne 0-1; Mia Duffy, Rachel O’Connor-Leonard, Niamh Rice 0-3; Aoife Russell 1-2, Kate Flood 1-7, Ciara Woods. Subs: Anna Whyte for O’Reilly (45), Claire McDonald for O’Connor-Leonard (48), Carrie Keenan for Duffy (53), Eilís Hand for Woods (53), Róisín Maguire for A Russell (60).

LONGFORD: Riane McGrath; Leah Shannon, Éimear O’Brien, Grace Kenny; Ciara Mulligan, Orla Nevin, Caoimhe McCormack; Sian Gallagher 0-1, Shauna Hagan; Joanne Whyte, Grace Shannon 0-3, Katelyn McKeon; Clodagh Lohan 0-1, Niamh Brady 1-2, Kamille Burke. Subs: Fumni Talabi for Mulligan (42), Caoimhe Lohan for Whyte (42), Ellie Lynn for McKeon (55).

REFEREE: Kevin O’Donnell (Dublin).

Get ahead of the day with the morning headlines at 7.30am and Fionnán Sheahan’s exclusive take on the day’s news every afternoon, with our free daily newsletter.