Louth Vs Wexford

cruiserweight

I was just checking some of the odds on Paddy Power, this game is the favourite to be the highest scoring 13-8 and Mattie Forde is the favourite to be the highest scoring player of the weekend across all games 2-1

mise_me_fein

I seen this as well. He says Louth "might not have enough in the tan".....is this for real???? Teams improve with games, they don't get tired, especially after two weeks off.

Anyhow, just shows no one can call this game.

mise_me_fein

cruiserweight wrote:

I was just checking some of the odds on Paddy Power, this game is the favourite to be the highest scoring 13-8 and Mattie Forde is the favourite to be the highest scoring player of the weekend across all games 2-1

The Louth players usually spread out their scoring unless Darren Clarke plays. I would be surprised to see any Louth player score more than Mattie Forde.

cruiserweight

mise_me_fein wrote:

The Louth players usually spread out their scoring unless Darren Clarke plays. I would be surprised to see any Louth player score more than Mattie Forde.

Well no Clarke in the line-up. What is the story with Lennon, is he out of form or out of favour?

Louth (SF v Wexford): S Reynolds; A Page, C Goss, J Carr; D Finnegan, P McGinnity, R Finnegan; P Keenan, R Carroll; M Farrelly, M Brennan, J O’Brien; A Hoey, M Stanfield, JP Rooney

Smarmore

Lennon is still not fully fit I think. I'm a bit dissapointed with that lineup to be honest. Understandable that McEneaney wants to go with the same team that won last time out. However they only really won it in the second half. Carroll has been dissapointing and I know for a fact he's been getting a lot of physio work done over the last few weeks. I would have started Farrelly in midfield because he was very influential when he dropped back the last day. Clarke is out of favour it appears and was dissapointing in the first 2 games. He was taken off in the first half of the second game. To be honest the full forward line was excellent for Louth the last day so there's no need to change things there. Nicky McDonnell should have been put in Farrellys position and Carroll should have been dropped to accomodate Farrelly in midfield. If things go bad on Sunday expect this switch to be made by half-time. I don't think McEneaney actually knows what his best team is yet which is a bit worrying. He's been chopping and changing a lot already.

blackbelt

Smarmore,it does say a lot about this company that they have a tendency to hire people that can do more than one thing at a time.So thanks for that.:D

Secondly,whats with the deranged lunatic comment?I'm perfectly sane thank you very much.I think you are the one who is a lunatic for throwing a hissy fit just for stating my opinion which is valid.You wouldn't know a valid point if it jumped up and bit you in the @$$.

You talk about Louth-Laois which has not been validated yet and yet you "try" to ridicule me for my opinion and points.You are right about one thing though,its better you ignore my posts and don't reply because I'm mopping the floor with you.You are even stupid enough to put yourself in a position whereby if Louth lose,yourself and Mise Me Fein will be the hot topic of ridicule on here.Even another Louth man has spoken out against you.It shows that not every Louth man is ignorant and childish on here.You also put yourself in a position where you could have been banned.

I won't waste my time on you anymore,I've said my piece.I'll do what I've always come here to do and thats talk about football.

A lot of people don't see the point that Wexford know a bit more about the current Louth team than the Louth team do about Wexford.I think this has neutralised or taken a chunk out of the advantage buffer that Louth have over Wexford.

Smarmore

Oooh a multitasker. You're going straight to the top my son Is that record finally over? That was very tiresome and repetitive. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Go on the Wee County!!!!

Anyway, cruiserweight, those odds look interesting. Donegal v Tyrone should be relatively low-scoring but the Meath-Dublin game could well produce a lot of scores and it's 15-8. 14 a piece the last time so at 13-8 I definitely wouldn't put the house on it!! JP Rooney for either first or last goalscorer 13-2. He's been very prolific in front of goal over the years. Matties 9-2 to do the same. They seem to have more bets for the other games. I'd like to see odds for them to get a goal in 70 minutes.

blackbelt

I'm very happy where I am thanks Smarmore:D ...no need to go any further.I've had the experience of meeting GAA officials and talking turkey.

My company/organisation is very very involved with the GAA and plays a part for the new breed of players coming through.....the person who guesses it gets a free pint.:D

slumped

I predict another draw! - and just realised that I wasted my 1000th post on that prediction!

blackbelt

Seen as how nobody can answer,I'll take that pint....in the corpo

lucernarian

I have to say blackbelt, you were fairly accurate, and I'm saying that as a louth supporter. 2 goals and 2 points to louth at one stage.

It was a shocking display of football, and it seems that the Wicklow games gave no competitive edge whatsoever. Wexford deserved a bigger scoreline in my opinion.

kaimera

Hey, we get to play Wexford. How about that...*hmph*

blackbelt

Thanks man,

I always had my suspicions about the Louth team.Wicklow are nothing to brag about and I thought the attitude of Smarmore and Mise Me Fein left a lot to be desired but you have restored pride in your county and its following.

You can't be a good winner until you are a good loser and Smarmore seemed to get completely carried away with himself.I thought Wexford could have won by more but lagged in the last 10 minutes especially and let Louth back in.I predicted a two point win or there abouts and knew that as far as Louth were concerned that they could have only a certain amount of scores in them particularly the goals.

On a side note,Smarmore,if you don't want to look like a fool on here again,don't EVER cross me again!!Not only did you make yourself look like a fool with the Louth-Laois thread but I told you the score pretty much.

You're lucky I won't rip the p1ss out of you any further as I'm in extremely high spirits after the Dublin game.I told you I knew a fair bit about Louth football and football in general but you said you'd refrain from personal insults as my points were "not valid".Now you know better than not to listen to me or disregard my knowledge and opinion.Take your defeat on the chin and don't ever spout your crap here again.

mise_me_fein

As bad as we were, we would have at least got a draw if the ref played the proper amount of injury time.

andrew1977

mise_me_fein wrote:

As bad as we were, we would have at least got a draw if the ref played the proper amount of injury time.

Agree with you there mate, he added on 2 minutes additonal time at the end of the second half when the general consensus was there should have been at least four.That referee Paddy Russell is one of the worst inter county referees around, he has been bad for years . Look at the difference in him and Pat McEnaney in the 2nd match, let the match flow with ease.
Not making that a full out excuse for Louth, Wexford forwards showed us how to take scores at ease, we laboured for scores, one touch with wexford and over the bar.
Another thing that has been getting on my nerves watching Louth over the past few years is our current goalkeeper, his distribution from goal kicks is terrible and costs us 2-3 points per game with stupid decisions from kick outs.

Roll on the qualifiers, surely the fate of the gods couldnt throw up a Louth v Meath match 1st round encounter !!
Imagine the ranting and raving on here then , that would be interesting:)

Flukey

Louth didn't deserve a draw. They were woeful yesterday. Had Louth scored all the chances they missed, there would be no complaints on the amount of injury time played. Of course had they got a draw, we'd have all the "The ref played for a draw" etc. posts here. So they don't always play for a draw, as anyone with a bit of sense knows. So now, can Wexford build on this and get past a Leinster semi-final, which has been their stumbling block in recent years?

andrew1977

Its Dublin for Leinster for me, can see them winning it out but no all ireland title in them ,
Looking at both matches yesterday, the difference in quality and speed of both Dublin and Meath in comparison to the first match was very noticeable.
Wexford could take their scores very well and with ease,in the heat of battle against the Dubs could they do it for 70 minutes, in my opinion i dont think so
But still Mattie Forde is such a talent, take the ball, one move and bang over the bar without looking,if only Louth had a forward like that,

Smarmore

To_be_confirmed wrote:

I have to say blackbelt, you were fairly accurate, and I'm saying that as a louth supporter. 2 goals and 2 points to louth at one stage.

It was a shocking display of football, and it seems that the Wicklow games gave no competitive edge whatsoever. Wexford deserved a bigger scoreline in my opinion.

Before blackbelt gets off on his high horse he did make 2 seperate predictions!! Nothing wrong with being optimistic about your teams chances either blackbelt so don't be such a killjoy Anyway I have to say Louth were awful particularly in the first half. Really dissapointing that they couldn't reproduce the kind of performance from the 2nd replay. I can understand McEneaneys reasoning for sticking with the same starting 15 but I reckon the game would have been more evenly contested throughout if Clarke and Lennon had played from the start. Wexford showed they are a very solid all-round team yesterday though and they proved they're not just the Mattie Forde show, although he was excellent. I thought the second half was the worst "35 minutes" of football I've ever seen though. Every 2 minutes there was another player lying down with cramp or something else. The physios seemed to cover more yards in that second half than any of the players. Paddy Russells handling of the game was very poor and the free at the end was an absolute farce. He could have called 10 minutes injury time and I don't think anyone could argue. Having said that the 2 goals Louth scored gave the scoreline an inaccurate reflection. Louth were well beaten and it would have been robbery if they had taken anything out of the game!! Depending on who they draw in the qualifiers if they get the right personnel out on the field from the start they may still have a chance of doing something. Louth v Meath would definitely be an interesting one. Meath looked fairly impressive yesterday.

Smarmore

Flukey wrote:

Louth didn't deserve a draw. They were woeful yesterday. Had Louth scored all the chances they missed, there would be no complaints on the amount of injury time played. Of course had they got a draw, we'd have all the "The ref played for a draw" etc. posts here. So they don't always play for a draw, as anyone with a bit of sense knows. So now, can Wexford build on this and get past a Leinster semi-final, which has been their stumbling block in recent years?

Agreed. Wexford will definitely give Laois a good game and it should be a tight one. Their full back line was exposed a few times yesterday and Louth did look capable of more goals. If the likes of Ross Munnelly etc. gets in around there he will probably be more clinical. That seems to be their only weak spot. Full back is decent but he lacks pace. If they can sort that out they definitely have a chance. They were winning all the breaking ball yesterday and looked very organised. They probably deserve to get to one after coming so close in the last few years.

blackbelt

Nothing wrong with being optimistic Smarmore but talking about Laois before Wexford really was silly.I had made a proper prediction after taking Louths propensity to score goals under advisement but I knew Louth would only have a certain amount of scores ie 7-10 region.You now must admit and acknowledge that my points were very valid and that I know more about Louth football and football in general than you thought.The personal insult statement was ridiculous on your part.

Hopefully Louth could beat Meath or Down in the qualifiers.A win against either team would settle them down and give them proper confidence.

Wexford looked to be in danger in the last 3 mins with some shakey defending and gave away silly frees to keep the pressure on themselves.I can see them giving Laois a good game but I'd expect Laois to win this out by a four point margin.

Cos88

Anyone else think the Louth penalty was very soft? I couldn't believe it when the referee blew for it.

I think Wexford will struggle against Laois....no offence to the lads but having to bring on the likes of Aindreas Doyle and Peter O' Dwyer doesn't exactly scream "strength in depth". Having said that we did play well at times, and Ciarán Lyng and Adrian Flynn impressed with their scores. Brian Malone will have to up his game a little bit for the semi, and I'd like to see Paddy Colfer brought into the game a bit more.

mise_me_fein

Wexford will beat Laois if they employ the stop start tactics they used in the Louth game. They prevent teams from playing flowing football and Laois are def a team that play like this.

Have to give credit to Wexford on this but the ref def helped them by not doing anything about the bodies all over the pitch. Wexford have good point takers but they're defence isn't great. Louth could have had more goals. And the penality was never in doubt. It was clear as day to be one.

Just feel a bit annoyed that that ref screwed us on the injury time. I mean Louth did not deserve to win but fair's fair....the ref gave 2 mins of injury time and in that injury time there was an injury that went on for over a minute. We would have scored a point easily at the end if we knew we had 2 more mins and probably would have been 50/50 to draw then..

Dublin will def will Leinster. Have to say I was cheering on Meath yesterday after I seen some scumbags giving abuse to these pensioners from Meath when they were asked to put a fag out.

I hope Louth get Armagh or Meath in the quals.

Smarmore

Armagh!!! I don't, I think they're the strongest team in the qualifiers. Down could be interesting. I have to agree about the bodies on the pitch. Fair play to Wexford they did do well overall but the delay tactics were very frustrating to watch. It was like watching an American Football game there were so many delays and stoppages. Paddy Russell shouldn't have stopped the game every time one of their players lay down for a bit of a breather. Clarke would have taken the easy point at the finish and if Russell had played on the extra 3 or 4 minutes who knows? Whether Louth deserved to win is not the point. Anyway it's a waste of time complaining about it now. If the Wexford players were all suffering from cramp 10 minutes into the second half it doesn't say a lot about their fitness levels!!

lucernarian

I hope Louth don't end up playing Meath. It's been too heartbreaking to see another Louth vs Meath match!! Back in 2002 when we were genuinely robbed by excessive injury time being played. And last year, when a stunning first half performance was equalled by a stunning second-half inability to score a single point or goal.

But credit to Wexford, the score belied the reality that Wexford were basically dominant. I can't understand why the Louth team were so lethargic in the match. They should put up a good fight against Laois.

mise_me_fein

LOL, I seen this...cramp I mean WTF????

I'd have no fear of Armagh, sort of a derby game.....Louth always do well enough against Armagh.....I would have hated to have had to watch the Wexford Louth game as a neutral......It was terrible.....Just angry at the ref.

Louth would have won if Pat Mc Eneaney reffed our game

cruiserweight

Smarmore wrote:

Armagh!!! I don't, I think they're the strongest team in the qualifiers. Down could be interesting. I have to agree about the bodies on the pitch. Fair play to Wexford they did do well overall but the delay tactics were very frustrating to watch. It was like watching an American Football game there were so many delays and stoppages. Paddy Russell shouldn't have stopped the game every time one of their players lay down for a bit of a breather. Clarke would have taken the easy point at the finish and if Russell had played on the extra 3 or 4 minutes who knows? Whether Louth deserved to win is not the point. Anyway it's a waste of time complaining about it now. If the Wexford players were all suffering from cramp 10 minutes into the second half it doesn't say a lot about their fitness levels!!

I am trying to remember all of the stoppages. Three players went off injured, Wallace, Murphy and Morrissey, Murphy went off of the pitch for treatment. Malone needed treatment after getting an elbow in the face and O'Dwyer needed treatment after being accidentally caught with a knee in the back of the head. The only player I remember going down with cramp was Bradley and he was replaced.

There were some good and bad aspects to Wexford's play yesterday. I was impressed with the forwards, especially Lyng, in the first half. No panicking, good shot selection and a good return. I also thought that the midfield played well for most of the game, as did the full back line, in particular Wallace.

But of concern were some of the turnovers from hand passing out of the defence, players getting caught under a high ball at times and some of the distribution from kick outs. It will also be a major problem of 3 of our starting 6 backs are out, in particular there is no outstanding player to replace Wallace at full back.

mise_me_fein

cruiserweight wrote:

I am trying to remember all of the stoppages. Three players went off injured, Wallace, Murphy and Morrissey, Murphy went off of the pitch for treatment. Malone needed treatment after getting an elbow in the face and O'Dwyer needed treatment after being accidentally caught with a knee in the back of the head. The only player I remember going down with cramp was Bradley and he was replaced.

There was bodies all over the place. There was no stoppages in the half time game between the Dublin and Wexford kids...are you perhaps mixing these two games up??

cruiserweight wrote:

There were some good and bad aspects to Wexford's play yesterday. I was impressed with the forwards, especially Lyng, in the first half. No panicking, good shot selection and a good return. I also thought that the midfield played well for most of the game, as did the full back line, in particular Wallace.

I'll give you this....if your forwards play like this and Wexford can stall as much as they did Vs Louth you'll have no problem beating Laois.

cruiserweight

mise_me_fein wrote:

There was bodies all over the place. There was no stoppages in the half time game between the Dublin and Wexford kids...are you perhaps mixing these two games up??

There were plenty of stoppages, but for genuine reasons. Anyway it is always nice for Wexford to beat Dublin

mal1

The Louth team were playing dirty in the second half due to their frustrations hence all the injuries. Thankfully the referee didn't play too much extra time because it would have been a crime if Louth got a draw out of that match. Louth were outplayed by a fitter, quicker and more determined team. Hopefully Wexford will finally get to a Leinster final.

I can never understand the extreme optimism of some of the Louth fans going into games. You would think after all the disappointment of the last 50 years that they would have learned to be humble going into championship games.

I hope we get a higher profile team like Meath or Armagh in the qualifiers. We always seem to give the bigger teams a better game (unlike yesterday).:o

blackbelt

I must say Louth should be hoping for a match with Down,Meath or Cavan.I think Louth would improve for this.

Wexford being in the final is a very interesting prospect.I hope they get through.I'm sick of Laois-Dublin matches at this stage.As said,if Wexford play a tactic of winning frees in front of goal,Laois will be in big trouble.Wexford will be up for this game and I don't believe we saw the best of them yesterday.

Smarmore

Well we need to have a bit of optimism rather than knocking the team the whole time. As the analysts on RTE said last night Louth are not a bad team and they did battle hard to get back into the game. They did get overly aggressive and dirty at times which is very uncharacteristic. Paddy Keenan and Mark Brennan in particular could well have been sent off. I'd agree it would have been undeserved but there was a lot of reason to be optimistic about their chances in Leinster before the campaign yesterday. Hopefully they will learn from this and have a good crack at the qualifiers. They could start by putting Clarke and Lennon in from the start because they seem to be the only 2 forwards that know how to put the ball over the bar.

Cruiserweight I would agree with most of your assesment of Wexfords performance. All 6 forwards linked up well with each other and the midfield were on top throughout. However I have to disagree about the full back line. I thought Louth were always capable of breaching them. The half back line was solid and they mopped up a lot of breaking ball but the full back line was exposed on a number of occasions.

Pighead

Louth were absolutely terrible in that first half and I'm pretty sure you won't see as bad a performance in the championship all season long. Darren Clarke made a difference when he came on I thought and perhaps should have started. Louth improved the 2nd half and if the game had of gone on for a few more minutes |I reckon Louth would have at least drawed.

Wexford were pretty disappointing in the 2nd half and the fact they were a kick of the ball from going out against a poor Louth team tells its own story.

PS Anybody watch the kiddies play at half time? That Number 6 for Wexford was a legend. Nobody could stop him.

cruiserweight

Smarmore wrote:

Cruiserweight I would agree with most of your assesment of Wexfords performance. All 6 forwards linked up well with each other and the midfield were on top throughout. However I have to disagree about the full back line. I thought Louth were always capable of breaching them. The half back line was solid and they mopped up a lot of breaking ball but the full back line was exposed on a number of occasions.

I thought that Wallace and Morris played very well, with Malone having a decent game. Where Wexford were caught out is that Morris and Malone are not the biggest, and Malone in particular was caught out a couple of times. Louth came back into the game more after Wallace had to go off injured, it is not clear who the back up full back would be

lucernarian

If Louth are not a poor team but can play the way they did in the first half, mabye questions need to be asked of the manager. Not asking him to resign or anything drastic like that, but why can a team fluctuate so much in the games of recent times? Their score is either eaten up after a good first half or they make a great comeback after a poor first half. Things had improved, but this championship makes me wonder.

Mabye someone could enlighten me.

Smarmore

As McEneaney said himself it's hard to put your finger on it. What annoys me about him is he doesn't seem to know his best team which is the only explanation for all the chopping and changing he's done. The team is not settled and you could see they were very disjointed yesterday. They just didn't look organised at all and started getting frustrated. He needs to decide who his best 15 are and stick with them. Some of the old brigade like Rooney should be dropped for the likes of Clarke and Lennon. McEneaney seemed to have solved some of the problems like their erratic finishing. I remember one game in particular against Kildare a few years ago. Louth kicked 19 wides to Kildares 4. Kildare won by a point!! That problem seems to have resurfaced. They seemed to have completely lost their confidence at kicking points again yesterday. Their old folly of overcarrying the ball instead of having the balls to take the shot on was evident again yesterday. McEneaney needs to get them back to basics and hammer it into them that if they get the ball within 35 yards or so have a go. That's what Wexford were doing yesterday. They were kicking it over from all angles in positions where Louth players were always looking for the layoff.

lucernarian

True enough.

I remember the match in question, I think it was actually 22 wides, or so I remember hearing in the radio on the way home afterwards.

It was in Pairc Tailteann and I remember Mark Stanfield missing a point with no pressure on him 20 metres in front of the post. He was desperate that day. One of the most frustrating matches I ever saw.