*Louth manager, Mickey Harte. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
LOUTH MANAGER, Mickey Harte has criticised the amount of injury-time played in Sunday’s Allianz National Football League opener which allowed Clare to secure a one point win against his side.
With seventy six minutes played, Jamie Malone kicked the winning score in the Round One tie denying last year’s Division 3 champions a successful start to life in Division 2. “I don’t know where the seven minutes of added time came out of in the second half. It is devastating to think we got nothing out of that game for the efforts our players put in,” a perplexed Harte stated.
He felt that the delay in the opening half for Ciaran Byrne’s injury which resulted in six minutes of additional time was not matched by similar interruptions in the second half. “I didn’t think we’d have anything like six minutes in the second half. It is devastating on the players who put such effort into that game today and got nothing out of it, you can see some simple decisions that go against you and you wonder why does that happen. We have to take it, it’s not easy but we’re very proud of the players and what they did, they gave every ounce of energy that they had, we couldn’t ask anymore from them”.
Byrne’s injury put a further dark cloud over the game for Louth. “We don’t know the outcome of it but it seems nasty enough. The effort the boys put in deserved more than they got but at the same time, we’re totally proud of them and they can be proud of themselves, we love a team who gives the energy that they give and applies themselves the way that they did. Nobody would have begrudged us a draw and everyone says we were good value for a win”.
“I thought we battled well in the first half, the lead wasn’t huge considering the breeze, we knew we had a game on our hands in the second half and they got back probably handy enough to draw the game but then we got a real good purple patch to put ourselves two points up and then it looked like they were taking over again and we got that wonderful goal from Ciaran Downey, I think we played much the better football in the last ten minutes, I couldn’t for the life of me understand how Conor Grimes was blown up, first of all I think he was fouled before he went to ground, then he passed the ball out and the ref gives a free out, a critical decision in that game”.
Harte attempted to question referee Sean Lonergan of Tipperary following the game. “He didn’t shed light on anything, he just walked on and brought his authority with him,” he said of the exchange.
Responding to a query from The Clare Echo, the three-time All-Ireland SFC winning manager conceded that they were guilty of not kicking on in the closing moments after they regained the lead with a goal from Ciaran Downey. “We played enough good football to go ahead but to a degree I think we overplayed for goals before we got the first goal and then we could have taken a few points after we got the goal, we created a really goal chance but it was a great save by the goalkeeper, those things should be finished as well, if that had gone in it would have sealed the game for us. We have to take a bit of responsibility for the fact that we didn’t close out the game when we did create enough chances to do that”.
Discipline needs to be improved within their ranks, Harte noted. “We didn’t help ourselves in other ways, a couple of other men picked up yellow cards so we had to move them because they were technically only a foul away from being sent off. The boys who came in did very well and I have to congratulate them for the effort they put in, I’m really proud of the players and I feel so much for them. When you put that much work into a game and the training that they’ve put in over the last few months, to get something like that to take the result totally away from them is very difficult to take”.
“I feel often Division 1 wasn’t as tough as this is, it is a very heavy Division this year when you have the big hitters of Dublin, Kildare and Derry then Cork are always Munster finalists, Limerick, Meath, ourselves, Clare, there are no handy games here and that’s what you’re getting in the second tier and you have to expect good teams, we have to try do our best to remain in that company”.
