Wexford recap and its a whopper

Sunday’s game was very hard to take......why was that? Was it the high expectations? Was it the thoughts of a Leinster final, was it the sunshine, was it the thoughts of Meath next?

Or was it the fact that the defeat was in Drogheda , on our home turf for everyone to see not like Croke park and Navan where we walk away and the pain of defeat dissolves on the extended trip home...

We lost at home and it cut, it cut right down to the bone.
The whole week exposed the whole county for what we are.....and the result was the cherry on top.

An inconsistent football team and a County that, shamefully can’t shelter its own.

County Grounded

I’ll start with Drogheda.... Last week though, was a real eye opener.... Shamefully we ran the place down.

Personally, I love the place, it will always be home for the Louth football team in my eyes....on Sunday it looked superb....the pitch....the full length stand....the scoreboard even...you can’t deny, every inch of the place has character and it’s a great place to play ball.

But, I’m not the county board.

 ‘Hi everybody I’m Louth County Board and I have a Problem,  my County grounds is not up to the modern-day standard’s and for years I’ve keep burying it away but I can’t take the shame any longer...I need help,’

The moment the county Board chose our home venue as Drogheda, there was rumblings...after years of ignoring the place by choosing either Navan, Parnell Park or a Double header in Croker. We finally had to face up to it and deal with our Demons.

Sure, they parlayed some of the blame on Health and Safety for reducing the viewing numbers to a paltry 3500!! ‘It’s their fault that we’re not able to provide for the fans.’ Wrong.
It was your fault County board entirely yours....you were the reason some genuine fans didn’t get to go and see their own team play in their own county, it’s your fault some ordinary punter didn’t get exposed to Louth GAA if they casually wanted to go, It’s your fault you made the GAA in this county snobby and elitist and not open to everybody and worst of all it’s your fault that the next generation didn’t get a chance to be inspired by Paddy Keenan and Shane Lennon.

If anything positive came from last week it was the fact that the county grounds have been brought to the forefront of everybody’s mind and made us face up to the reality of the situation.

That something urgent has to be done....a green light needs passed, we need a place to be proud off where kids gets inspired and players strive to want to play there.

Sort it out County Board, Strike now why the iron is hot.

Louth the Adapted Version

We all knew that our match up’s had to be more or less spot on, on Sunday to have for us to have a chance to win and sadly they weren’t.... and the fact We didn’t adapt quick enough or, at all in some cases meant  the knock on effect cost us the game.

We played with an orthodox traditional full back corner back the whole game,

Their two most influential Forwards coming into the game was Redmond Barry and Ciaran Lyng stop them and we go along way to beating Wexford.

Lyng scored 1-5 and Redmond Barry a not fully fit Redmond Barry scored a point and settled Wexford in the opening quarter when they badly needed it, either with an assist or winning a free.

Dessie playing corner back was not playing to our strengths and gave Wexford a major advantage...Barry and then Roche pulled and dragged Dessie around to detrimental effect, while Pop picked up Brosnan at the edge of the square. We never adapted.

A simple switch between the two was needed. We also had Gerry Hoey on the bench....It meant all afternoon our fullback line had no shape, loose and looked uncomfortable throughout.

We started our left half back, right half

Adrian Reid has been a revelation at half back this season...he exposes forward’s defensively by driving forward and putting them on the back foot. Getting on the scoresheet and causes their defence to open up and come to him. As well as that, every match up this year he’s won we’ve won the game. So why on Sunday, did we put our best attacking asset right half back on Andreas Doyle?? It didn’t make sense!?
1, We took Reido out of his accustomed position and 2, we made Wexford’s life easier by him going over to Doyle in the first place!

It was only when Doyle went off we seen Reido really drive into the game, the attack minded number 10 for them Holmes wasn’t able to track him and Reido was a main reason for Louth’s purple patch.  We’re looking more menacing going forward and had a much more effective launching pad.

Our Midfield match ups and switches, the whole ClusterFuck in general

Aerially

There was a number of issues here, Rafferty coming into the middle to break the ball wasn’t working we let him get exposed on a number of occasions. Especially height wise.  We never adapted for their kickouts Donnelly should have picked up the taller Quinlavin and for our own kickouts they should have been directed away from him.

Furthermore even by not adapting  on the field off it we never made a change.
How it took us so long to get Ronan Carroll into the game I don’t know....a natural midfielder, Even Bevan Duffy, a Midfielder for the juniors and Fechins called into the panel, our Midfield was in trouble what was he called into the panel for? Also Peach Califf was dropped off the panel the tallest man in the panel? It was so frustrating as we had first hand experience that Wexford were tall and rangey from the league game. He could have easily spoiled Watters and Quinlavin and let Paddy do the free role.

Our own kickouts Overcoached.

The routine and plan worked in Portlaoise superbly we dominated the middle, but, We knew after the first 3 kickouts that they weren’t working but we didn’t adapt.....we kept doing it over and over again....to no prevail, furthermore, into the wind where the ball was pitching and hanging perfectly to be broke back down our throats eventually we were going to break.
Look at Lyngs wondergoal , huge break from midfield where corner forward Banville got the break laid it off to Lyng and bang. Wondergoal.

Was it a case that Gally was overcoached and doing exactly what he was told even if the new kickout regime wasn’t working or did he not adapt himself or were management not quick enough to tell him to adapt and stop what wasn’t working?

On the ground, Okay This is where, it really gets messy......

PK was midfield and he picked up Wathers for the kickouts and open play, we know that for certain.

Rafferty for the kickouts picked up Quinlavin so Donnelly went out on the wing.
Derek Crilly Picked up Lyng for the kickouts and JOBser went out left half on 10 for these kickouts also.
Very confusing even more so for the players after the kickouts.
When the game broke down
Rafferty dropped back on 10 to let Derek Crilly Sweep but it meant Donnelly had to come off his wing to pick up a runner from the middle. And JOBser had to scurry across to Lyng which meant Lyng was always going to be a half yard ahead of him all day! (Could you blame JOBser for getting frustrated and lashing out?)

This scenario for kickouts was never going to work as Donnelly picking up loose men around the middle is not his game.

Knock on effect was,  5 and 7 were able to drive forward at ease our backline were constantly under pressure, Andy Couldn’t get into the game, confusion around the middle make it easy for them to pick a pass. We were too slow to adapt and prolonged with it for too long, every starting forward for Wexford scored and 2 of the subs that came on scored.

Additionally Sweeper what sweeper Wasn’t working actually I’ll change that to wasn’t needed.

Derek Crilly was Louth’s best player on Sunday when he drove forward, it was him gave the ball into Shane Lennon for the goal, when he drove forward he caused them problems. When he sat back he caused us more problems yet, we still forced him to play that role.

Plan B? What Plan B?

The goal we got was the worst thing that happened to us on Sunday, I repeat it was the worst thing that happened us on Sunday.

Why?

1. The ball into Shane Lennon for the goal was not just a lumped in high ball on top of him but a measured and well picked out direct pass by Derek Crilly. To the naked eye it looked like a lumped in high ball but it wasn’t. For the next 20 minutes we lumped high balls into Shane. They were either batted out, over cooked and Shane had to run out to the corner to get them or wide balls. We didn’t adapt and Just a wasted possession over and over again.

2. Shane then had to stay inside the whole game. After the goal went in it restricted him and meant he couldn’t come out as he was seen as this big goal threat, by the time we did move him out around the forty it was too late, we didn’t adapt quick enough. Which was a pity as when he did come out the field he kicked some really good points with the wind and caused their full back to leave the square open.

3. Derek Maguire and Ciaran Byrne had the beating of their men every.single.time.  but because Shane got the goal, it meant we weren’t looking for them  whatsoever. So frustrating as there corner backs were there for the taking it was only when Judge and Maguire we left inside you could see the danger and nervousness in the Wexford fullback line.

4. They suspected it. They knew it was coming and in fairness it was easy to defend.
50/50 balls, slow and ponderous, chance attacks and no link man off Shane (thats why I thought Colm Judge being brought on was a great move he links up well with Shane but they played him out the field and then took him back off Bizzare! even a fit Darren Clarke would have had the knowhow to get the scores off Shane Lennon’s crumbs)
We wasted majority of possession on it and in the first half with the wind it was our downfall, not the goal in the second half they got, but the 5 point lead they built up before half time on the scoreboard and our missed opportunities in attack kilt us psychologically.

In football, you either adapt or die. We didn’t adapt at all in some situations and did in others, those others gave us some brief hope but in reality we died a slow and painful death on Sunday. The whole county did. That’s why I feel, we feel so gutted.

 

Thanks for Reading

@LouthProud