WestMeath Recap

Over the weekend, if you are a sports fan like me you seen how momentum affects sports teams either the Rugby game on Saturday or the Super Bowl in early hours of the morning.


and.......

if you were a Louth fan like me you seen at close hand how to NOT deal with Momentum. 


1. When you have it keep it 


In the first half we had a slight wind but, what really pinned Westmeath back was the aggressiveness our forwards. Their intensity hassled the Westmeath defenders coming out into turnovers and eventually giving away possession. 

One mans intensity is another man's black book and yellow card!

That man was referee Gary McCormack.

He singlehandly dropped the intensity of the game and our tackling by booking Conor Raffety and the temperamental Colm Judge who, had to be replaced by David Reid after 25 minutes because of it.

Once that was sanitised out of our game by the referee, we lost our main source of possession, as we were non existent in the midfield without Paddy Keenan (who did not start) and they were alot sharper picking up the breaks.

During those high octane minutes, Westmeath simply were not up to the task. Shane Lennon caused their full back line a whole host of problems by either scoring himself or providing. 

He caught a super direct high ball and then layed it off perfectly to the on rushing Adrian Reid who composed himself to finish to the net.

A free kick of his, hit the post and came back out to Andy who's shot was blocked but Colm Judge finished after a goal mouth scramble. 

Directly or Indirectly Lenno was involved in 2-2 of Louth's first half tally of 2-4. (It might actually be 2-3! because, I can't remember who layed the ball off for David Reid's point.)

Just like you thought it couldn't get any better, Zebo gets a try!! sorry, wrong game! 

Dorian Harte gets sent off for striking Jim McEneaney!

Super! We're a man up and at the time, 5 points up. Plus, in general play we were playing well. 


2. Don't let them have it or give them hope!

Just before half time we gave Westmeath hope.....


Their Dominance around midfield was coming to fruition and combined with a lack of intensity and indiscipline on our part, They were getting alot of possession and we let them score 4 out of the last 5 points, which meant they went in at half time, only 3 points down.

The Half time break Just like the SuperBowl blackout, allowed them time to refocus.

That indiscipline would force management to take off Pop Rath who was on a yellow card and was also marshaling Denis Glennon expertly. Gary O'Hare came in for his Debut.


What really told a tale was Westmeath storming out of the dressing room for the second half about 5 minutes before Louth resurfaced.

Pats Duo Paddy Keenan and Ray Finnegan also were introduced at half time. Ray at half forward for yellow card victim Conor Rafferty and Ronan Carroll was the scapegoat for poor all round midfield performance.



3. If they do gain it break it.

I think the addition of these two, actually relaxed the rest of the team even more.
       'AH PK and Ray are on we'll win it now'   Wrong.

So they now had a major focus for the second half.....they had to go for it....while we were trying to hang on to a lead.

Such a dangerous thing to do in any code.....
The whole second half Ireland hung on and the Baltimore Ravens did the same. 

but, they both won why?

They broke their momentum by either defensively stopping them till time ran out or taking whatever chances that came their way. 

We failed to do both.

We didn't trust the system, gave up our tackling and just invited them on to us time and time again. 

Management made Dessie Finnegan the extra man,and instructed him to act as a sweeper in front of their full forward line. Westmeath copped this and their running game made Dessie basically redundant back there. 

So effectively it was 14 on 14!

Starting from their half backline, Paul Sharry, James Dolan drove forward time and time again also, the introduction of Dessie Dolan meant Glennon came out and he was able to run at us too.

This caused us a plethora of problems resulting in panic.

We forced passes, ran into trouble, got isolated and turned over, lacked composure basically.

We needed to stop them at the source but a combination of bad refereeing and know how on our part meant we couldn't break the tide. 
Plus,We kicked balls out to them over and over again not once with the extra man did we kick a short one. 

Despite all this, we had chances......but, we didn't take them.

Jim missed a free he (and David Akers ) would score in his sleep on the 21 yard line and Kevin Rogers had goal chance I’m sure he dreamt off to get on his Louth debut. The ball broke off Lennon into the Malachi's man's path made for a left footer like himself to finish....unfortunately he dragged it across the face of goal.

These misses were crucial and badly needed to break their momentum and keep our noses in front.


Conclusion 

From the 25th minute on, We showed a major lack of composure all round but, I will conclude and say we have played worse against Westmeath and won. Last year in Navan and haggardstown and the Division 3 league final the year before, both resulted in short summers. 

We showed glimpses of a gameplan and of which, looks potentially successful.

It is a learning curve, if we get into this position again we'll know what to do. 

Hopefully it will be in the summertime.


Until then, on to the next one....Galway. Drogheda.Sunday.