Louth boss Kevin Larkin says no patting themselves on the back ‘just yet' after semi-final win

Irish Independent

3 days ago

It was a cagey enough opening to the game but once Louth moved into the lead, boosted by Eimear Byrne's goal, the floodgates started to open.
'We know the more patient we are, we will wear down defences because we've great players like Aoife Russell, Eimear Byrne and Kate Flood who will unlock defences so it was all about when that chance came - we took it and in fairness to Eimear, she took a great goal,' said Larkin.
'It's a great feeling and these days are to be enjoyed as well like you know but, we're still in the hunt for that [All-Ireland] trophy so we won't pat ourselves on the back just yet.'
With a big lead at the break, Larkin acknowledged the message to his players was to stay focused, not do anything differently and to try and push on in the second half but also, that they needed to tidy up a bit.
'There was a few fist passes and just basic unforced errors that was just a bit silly,' said Larkin.
'It gave Longford a bit of momentum but to be fair to the girls, when they came out in the second half, they tidied that up, they tagged on a few scores and it was just a great performance.'
Louth have a few weeks to prepare for the All-Ireland Final which takes place on August 3 in Croke Park (11.45am throw-in). The chance of a Junior Football Championship crown is what Larkin set as his side's main goal at the start of the season – he has that one big objective still to fulfil.
'Look, it's great to get to Croke Park and that's good in itself but we still have unfinished business there and like I said before, we won't be happy until we're watching Áine Breen [Louth captain] walk up the steps and that doesn't change,' said the Louth boss.
'We still have a job to do and I'm just looking forward to the next three weeks because it's a nice thing to have, to be preparing for an All-Ireland final, but by God will we be prepared.'
A lot of 'hurt inside from last year'
For Aoife Russell too, there is some unfinished business in Croke Park and while she acknowledged there was a lot of 'hurt inside from last year', when Louth lost by a point in the final to Fermanagh, she wants to go back and rewrite the wrongs of 2024.
'We know what we're capable of as a group, we don't believe that we should be playing at the 11.45am time in Croke Park in three weeks, so now we just need to go back there and prove to everyone that we do deserve to be playing at intermediate and go beyond that and play at senior level in the near future,' said Aoife.
'Without being any way cocky, we just believe that we can go further, we deserve to be there and that's the end goal at the end of the day, to keep powering on and to keep pushing on.
'Especially for the younger girls coming through and then the girls coming from the under 16s and minor level, we know that we believe and we deserve to be up playing at a higher level so that is the end goal at the end of the day.'
In terms of the Longford game, while the sides were matched in the opening stages once Louth got a run at them, they showed their quality in what was, for the most part, a commanding performance.
'We came here today with utmost respect for Longford,' Aoife said.
'We knew they were going to put it up to us. We knew that at the end of the day we only beat them by a point in the last game but that wasn't us, that wasn't our real performance.
'We had an off day and again we came back here today to prove that that was an off day.
'We should be beating Longford by more than just a point and that's what we did today and yeah, we're going to keep powering on for the next three weeks and hopefully we'll be home with the trophy and that's the goal.'
Particularly strong for Louth on Sunday was the midfield paring of Áine Breen and Aoife Halligan who, considering the heat, put in trojan work all over the pitch.
Up front, there was a lot of slick passing, some great movement and it was clear that there is a strong understanding between Aoife Russell and her forward colleagues, with the Glen Emmets player herself contributing three points from play.
However, with 10 points and producing a performance Longford couldn't deal with, Kate Flood was in scintillating form but, as Aoife agreed, Louth have so many other players who are more than capable of getting into the scoring act.
'Kate's phenomenal, she's an inspiration, a role model to everyone,' Aoife said.
'The girls inside the camp and girls outside the camp but like you said, there's girls there, whether that be wingbacks, full-backs, half-forwards, it doesn't matter who it is at the end of the day, and it doesn't matter who gets on the team sheet, and we always say that every week, it does not matter who gets the scores.
'It doesn't matter whose name is in the paper, at the end of the day, we all contribute to those scores…and that's the main thing.'
In terms of the next three weeks and how Louth will approach the final, compared to 12 months ago, Aoife was quite adamant about what that approach will be.
'We keep the routine, keep the same rituals and we go again.'