Dublin 3-19 Louth 1-10
The importance of this O’Byrne Cup game to Mickey Harte and Louth can probably be gauged by the dozen substitutions they made at half-time.
Still, a win is a win and after an autumn and winter of relative discontent in Dublin, Dessie Farrell will be pleased with this latest win which places them on the brink of qualification for the pre-season final.
Cormac Costello - one of five players in the Dublin lineup that started last August’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Mayo - did the bulk of the damage with 2-5, 2-3 of which was delivered during a first-half surge of scoring.
Dublin, much changed from the side that defeated Offaly last weekend, led by 2-10 to 0-2 late in the opening half and that was pretty much that.
Not that scoring hauls and even wins are the most important things in these competitions. It’s all about experimentation in mid-January, for both camps, and the two managers took full advantage of the opportunity with Farrell looking at 23 players in total, one of whom was former Under-20 attacker Lorcan O’Dell who scored their third goal from a late penalty which he won himself.
Harte’s Louth, who are now pointless in Group A after coughing up a big lead against Longford last weekend, were much improved after all the half-time changes.
Jay Hughes, their top scorer against Longford, and ex-AFL player Ciarán Byrne both came on and lent some badly needed punch in attack.
Louth actually won the third quarter by 0-4 to 0-2 and added two more points after the second water break to leave just seven points in it.
Dublin finished the game strongly though with Fenton and Costello pointing before a late burst of 1-4 without reply, climaxing with that penalty conversion by O’Dell. He deserved the goal as he won the penalty after a high catch which drew a foul from Conal McKeever.
Dublin: M Shiel; A Rafter, D Byrne, L Gannon; N Scully, J Small, C Gallagher; B Fenton (0-3), C McCormack (0-1); R McGarry (0-2), W Egan, D Lacey (0-2); C Costello (2-5, 0-3 frees), R Basquel (0-3), H Ladd (0-1). Subs: D Conlon for Gannon (half-time), B Howard for Gallagher (44 mins), A Byrne (0-1) for Egan (47 mins), P Small for Lacey (50 mins), M Lavin for McGarry (53 mins), T Lahiff for Small (62 mins), L O'Dell (1-1, 1-0pen) for Costello (62 mins), S Carthy for McCormack (69 mins).
Louth: M McEneaney; T Jackson, D Campbell, C Clarke; C Faulkner, G Browne, G Bell; T Durnin (0-1), J Murphy; J McDonnell, E Moore, TJ Doheny (0-1); K McElroy (1-0), C Fleming, T McEneaney (0-1 mark). Subs: B Duffy, L Jackson, D Nally, L Grey, C McKeever, S Healy, E Callaghan, N Sharkey, C Early (0-1), C Byrne (0-4, 0-1 free), J Hughes (0-2, 0-1 free), D McKenny for Campbell, Clarke, Browne, Bell, Durnin, Murphy, McDonnell, Moore, Doheny, McElroy, Fleming, McEneaney (all half-time), McDonnell for Hughes (53 mins).
Referee: F Pierce (Offaly).
