Louth await crucial breakthrough

Chesterton's words suitably reflect Louth's footballing dilemmas since they last won the All-Ireland by beating Cork in 1957: "One sees great things from the valley and small things from the peak."

Wicklow manager and former Meath player Niall Rennick has his own theories on Louth's chances against his native county in Sunday's Leinster senior football championship semi-final.

Rennick, whose Wicklow charges were ousted by Louth in the first round says: "Many teams like Louth put in the extreme effort to reach psychological and physical peaks and when they don't make the breakthrough they come down fast again."

Rennick feels that with more or less the same team, Louth climbed to those peaks last year before defeat by Offaly brought them down again.

He agrees that in hindsight there was hardly any shame in that defeat. "If you look back at the account of the match, Louth missed quite a few frees that could have won the match for them. Colin Kelly missed frees that he would normally be sure of pointing and there was nothing in the game. I think that took a lot out of Louth last year and was a crucial factor in their not making the breakthrough.

"The extreme effort that has gone into their preparations should have payed off, for what is basically the same group of players, by now," Rennick added. "They were good enough to earn promotion to Division One under the old league system but disappointed and were beaten in Drogheda two or three times".

Rennick reckons that Louth beat Wicklow in the previous round because of the substandard finish of his full-forward line and shortcomings in midfield, upon which Louth were able to capitalise. On Sunday, however, "it will be very different," says Rennick. "Louth depend on their full forward line for scores and on midfield and I don't think they are strong enough to worry the Meath full-back line or the Meath midfield."

"Against Wicklow, Louth forwards like Cathal O'Hanlon, Colin Kelly and Stefan White, when he came on, were far too strong for us but, against the Meath back line, it will be more difficult for them. Unless Paddy Clarke comes up with some super plan I don't think they will be good enough."

The former Meath player feels that Louth will be meeting a Meath team focused on making amends for last year's disappointment. "The attitude in Meath is that they left a lot behind them last year and the intent is to recover their status."

"There is certainly a core of 15 to 16 exceptional players in the Meath squad and possibly after that, if the Offaly game last year did show up anything, it was that there wasn't strength in depth in the panel." Louth's main scorers when beaten by Meath nine years ago were Colin Kelly and Stefan White. They will be in action on Sunday, whereas Meath's top scorers that day, Brian Stafford, Fintan Murtagh and Liam Hayes, have departed the scene.

It is 23 years since Louth won against Meath. That match in 1975 came just two weeks after Meath had won the National Football League. Nonetheless it is interesting to note that Louth are ahead 15-14 on the head-to-head. But it is 38 years since Louth appeared in a Leinster final.

Looking further ahead, Rennick dismisses the notion that Kildare could underestimate Laois. "It comes back to extreme effort and with that input of commitment goes the attitude that you don't take anything for granted."

Derry's attacking opportunist, Joe Cassidy, has paid dearly for his dismissal while assisting his club Bellaghy in a county championship match last week.

Having considered the referee's report on Cassidy allegedly striking an opponent, the Derry County Board handed down a one-month suspension to the corner forward on Wednesday night. This rules the 21-year-old out of Sunday's Ulster senior football semi-final against Armagh in Clones.

Enda Gormley, the star of Derry's 1993 All-Ireland triumph over Cork is set to be named to fill the vacancy.

Since Derry's defeat by Tyrone in 1996 Gormley has been plagued with knee injuries and at one stage announced his retirement. Benny Murray, Ciaran Higgins and Ruairi Boylan are also in line for selection. Manager Brian Mullins intends to take his time before finalising the team on Sunday morning.

Derry have won seven of the 10 championship meetings with Armagh over the past 50 years. The counties last met, in the first round game in 1996 when Derry won on the score 1-13 to 1-6 before 14,500 at Celtic Park.

It is now eight years since Armagh reached the final.