PETER Fitzpatrick admitted his team were lucky to be still in the game at half time on Sunday, but was nevertheless impressed by the manner in which his troops pushed on for a valuable win in the second period.

'The game could have been over after ten minutes,' he said afterwards. 'Only Neil Gallagher made some fantastic saves and they missed a few.

'I thought we were getting no rub of the green and the ref was giving us nothing; the whole world seemed against us. But yet again the lads knuckled down and we made a couple of changes and thankfully they worked out today.'

While the free-taking of Brian White and Aaron Hoey proved crucial by the end, Fitzpatrick was more impressed by the way his side pulled together in the second half.

'It was down to teamwork and I think we're learning after the last two games. We beat ourselves in the Sligo game and there was no way we were going to lose this one in the second half. We were three points up and we knew we needed a big performance.'

And while a defeat would have almost certainly spelled the beginning of a relegation dogfight, Fitzpatrick insisted that two more points doesn't necessarily mean Louth are out of the woods yet.

'I still think five or six points will keep you up. After the Sligo game I set a target of five wins, we have one now, but we're not getting carried away.

'Cavan didn't play well today and neither did we, but we got a wee bit of luck and worked so hard and in fairness I'm delighted with the secondhalf performance.

'We had to make four changes before the game and we were under a bit of pressure in midfield. In fairness Ronan took a few painkillers to play, but we knew we needed a few big men around the middle.

'Brian wasn't too happy coming out of midfield, but he proved his point. In fairness he had a fantastic game when he went in there. Credit where credit is due, our midfield won the game today for us.'

While he was disappointed to see the Under-21s pass up a glorious opportunity to beat Dublin the day before, Fitzpatrick is also relieved to get a full panel back training this week.

'I was very disappointed for them yesterday, they were very unlucky. But the good thing for me is that I have a full squad back on Tuesday night – whether they are fit or not is another matter.

'If we had pushed a few lads they maybe could have played today, but we have four games on the trot coming up. We took a gamble in not playing them today and hopefully we'll get the rewards for that next week.'

Paddy Keenan, Ray Finnegan and Colm Judge should all come back into contention for the trip to Enniskillen, but Shane Lennon may need an additional week.

'Shane went over on his ankle two weeks ago and maybe shouldn't have played in the O'Byrne Cup final. He hurt it again against Dublin, but the thing about Shane is that he just wants to play football. We need him back and hopefully he can get himself back fit over the next couple of weeks.

'We've a very important game against Fermanagh and if you win that you're definitely in the promotion race. But our goal at the minute is to get to six or eight points and get away from relegation and then concentrate on promotion.'

- John SAVAGE