Louth claim the National Hurling League Division 4 League Title

LOUTH 0-16 FERMANAGH 1-8
The Louth senior hurlers rounded of their impressive NHL Div4 campaign in style by capturing the League title with this hard fought victory over Fermanagh in the final played at the Truagh Gaels grounds in Monaghan on Saturday afternoon (March 29).

To win a National League title is a great achievement for a county with only three active senior clubs and much of the credit for this goes to the manager Trevor Hilliard and his selectors Paddy McArdle and Diarmuid Murphy

Preparations will now continue in earnest in Darver as Louth will open their Nicky Rackard Cup campaign with a trip west to take on Sligo on Saturday April 12. Louth opened the scoring inside 30 seconds when Peter Fortune fired over a good point. The Erne men replied with a pointed free from Francis McBrien soon after. Midfielder Mark Gahan, a contender for man of the match alongside the impressive Leon Fox, replied with the Reds second point from long range on 8 minutes. However his side then conceded the games only goal when full forward Sean Corrigan fired past keeper Conor Clancy from close range.

Gahan added his second point before the returning Seaghan Conneely fired over from a tight angle to tie up matters. The sides were still tied at 0-5 to 1-2 midway through the half with the Louth point coming from top scorer Darren Geoghegan from a 65 metre free. The same player accounted for the next four points between the 19th and 27th minutes which included two more from 65 metre frees and one from open play, 0-9 to 1-2. The sides exchanged the next two points and after Seaghan Conneely had seen his goal bound effort cleared to safety Fermanagh fired over a late 20 metre free from Francis McBrien to go in at the break trailing by 0-10 to 1-4 at the break.

From a foul on Peter Fortune, Louth extended their lead on the resumption with Geoghegan firing over the resultant 20 metre free. McBrien replied with one from play from the left wing before Sean Flynn also pointed from play for Louth on 41 minutes. Fermanagh managed to cut the deficit to just two points on 51 minutes following a brace of points from John Duffy, 0-12 to 1-7.

Paddy Lynch made his first appearance of the campaign as a substitute and he fired over a good point from open play which was added to shortly after by another Geoghegan point from his fourth 65 metre free of this final. Fermanagh almost dramatically scored a second goal however the effort shaved the bottom of the right hand post going wide to the relief of the Louth supporters. From a foul on Conor Murphy which forced his exit from the pitch with an injury Darren Geoghegan took his match winning tally to nine points from the resultant 20 metre free, 0-15 to 1-7. It fell to two substitutes as the sides exchanged late points. Firstly Luca McCusker was on target for the Erne men before David Stephenson wrapped up the deserving victory for his side five minutes into injury time. At the final whistle from Sligo referee Michael Connolly the Louth players, County Board officials and the good contingent of supporters celebrated the victory on the field as everyone can now look forward with some confidence to the start of the Nicky Rackard campaign.

LOUTH: Conor Clancy; John Casey, Conor Quigley, Stephen Kettle; Sean Hodgins, Leon Fox, Aaron McGuinness Smith; Mark Gahan (0-2), Ben Goss Kieran; Conor Murphy, Thomas McCreesh, Peter Fortune (0-1); Darren Geoghegan (0-9, 4f & 4 65s), Sean Flynn (0-1), Seaghan Conneely (0-1). Subs – Paddy Lynch (0-1) for T McCreesh, James Costello for B G Kieran, Sam Phelan for S Conneely, David Stephenson (0-1) for C Murphy. Subs not used – Ricky McKeown, Kyle Rafferty, Tadhg Dowdall, Brian Corcoran, James Murphy, James Byrne, Sean Magill.

FERMANAGH: Chris McKiernan; Ronan McGurn, Rory Porteus, Odhran Johnston; Ultan O Reilly, Ryan Bogue, Thomas Duane; Caolan Duffy, Ciaran Duffy; Tom Keenan, Francis McBrien (0-3, 2f), John Duffy (0-2, 1f); Cahir McManus, Sean Corrigan (1-1), Jimmy Tormey (0-1). Subs – Daniel Teague for C Duffy, Luca McCusker (0-1) for C McManus, John Paul McGarry for F McBrien.

REFEREE: Michael Connolly (Sligo).

By Maurice Murphy