Enigmatic Louth overrun Wicklow

Louth are as hard to figure out as a rubik's cube. One moment, they're displaying as much elegance as an elephant in a china shop; the next, they're moving with such grace and conviction that you'd wonder who on earth could stop them if such a mood took them for the duration of a match.

The split personality was illustrated at O'Rahilly Park in Drogheda yesterday. Louth's performance in the first-half, when assisted by a stiff wind, lacked direction and seemed set to deliver an early exit from the Leinster football championship, a fate that had already befallen their minors and juniors in the preceding days.

But a magical transformation was performed during the break. The same 15 players who had trooped in with their hearts in their mouths at half-time re-emerged to turn in a superb performance that had their supporters greedily casting their sights ahead to a provincial semi-final with Meath at Croke Park on June 28th. "There was no roaring or shouting at half-time," said manager Paddy Clarke. "I just asked them to think about what they were doing. Asked them if they wanted this to be their last game together?"

Such a simple philosophy belies the actual result. Wicklow were simply overrun, particularly in the early part of the second-half, with a powerful, aggressive performance that yielded Louth a healthy return of 2-5 without any reply. It killed the match, and put Louth into a cruise control mode that hadn't looked possible in a mistake-ridden, scrappy first-half.

Wicklow had no answer to Louth's sorcery. The chief proponent was Stefan White who was introduced late in the first-half as a substitute, but Cathal O'Hanlon - another to benefit from dietary regime - lent valuable assistance and Colin Kelly, apart from scoring 1-5, worked as hard as he's ever done in a red jersey and was as prone to pop up in his own defence as in attack.

In that defence Louth had some inspiring figures, not least centrehalf back John Donaldson and, beside him, Arron Hoey who made some profitable raids further forward that sapped Wicklow's confidence.

White's appearance changed the course of the match though. Having played with a strong wind, Louth approached the half-time whistle with a meagre balance in the bank. They led by 1-3 to 0-4, that goal coming from Kelly's boot in the 10th minute from the penalty spot after Alan Doherty's goalward run was blocked by Wicklow goalkeeper Tommy Murphy. Kelly stroked the ball to the net and, amazingly, some 30 seconds later, Wicklow were awarded a penalty at the other end of the pitch: Conan Daye's effort was touched onto the post and eventual safety by Louth's custodian Niall O'Donnell.

Yet, Louth had gone 17 minutes without scoring to the half-time interval and Wicklow had slowly but surely edged back into the match. With the wind on their backs, they approached the re-start with high hopes - but, very quickly, those hopes were dashed, and emphatically so.

In the 40th minute, Kelly's 50yard free was held up in the wind and Wicklow full-back Eamon White and goalkeeper Murphy, with the sun in their eyes, failed to gather the dropping ball. White pounced with all the swiftness of someone who has lost a couple of stone in weight and first-timed the ball home. A minute later, he added a lovely point and, for the next few minutes, turned provider as O'Hanlon pointed and then Hoey took a pass from him to score a goal.

"Stefan's introduction allowed us to step up a gear," admitted Hoey. "And when he gave the ball to me that time, I had a flashback to last year's game with Carlow when I missed from a similar chance and just made sure I got it right this time." He did, and that goal effectively ruined any lingering hopes in Wicklow hearts.

Wicklow, who had played well into the wind when Daye and Keith Byrne were especially prominent, couldn't get to grips around the centre of the field with Ken Reilly and Gerry Curran. It was only when Louth, understandably, eased up in the closing minutes, after marching into a 13-point lead at one stage, that the visitors could put some measure of respectability on the scoreline as Darren Coffey grabbed a goal four minutes from time and then Jonathon Behan and Stephen Byrne added late points.

By that time, White and his cohorts had spun their wizardry. "After the hours and hours we put in on the training ground in Drumcar, we couldn't let ourselves down," said Kelly. "We played some trash in the first-half, but our second-half performance was worthy of the championship." So it was. Meath are another day's work.