Hurlers crash to first league defeat
NHL DIVISION 3B DONEGAL...........1-21 LOUTH................3-10
Wednesday March 03 2010
FOLLOWING an impressive opening round win over Sligo, Louth travelled to Donegal hoping to build some early momentum in Division 3B of the NHL, but couldn't prevent a bang in-form Donegal making it two wins from as many starts.
Despite starting brightly and then turning around a point ahead, Louth paid the price for a number of early secondhalf misses before fading out of the game in the third quarter.
Paddy Kelly's side opened the scoring, but Donegal gave a glimpse of what was to come by forging ahead with an impressive burst, before Wesley Morrissey got Louth back into contention with his side's first goal.
The Reds needed another goal, this time from a Gerad Smyth penalty, to get their noses back in front at the break, 2-6 to 1-8.
However, Donegal always looked the more dangerous side and they hit a devastating purple patch during the third quarter.
Niall Campbell, who rifled home a brilliant first-half goal, was the chief architect as he finished with a personal tally of 1-9.
The hosts suffered a blow when Joe Boyle picked up a second yellow card and a subsequent Shane Callan goal brought Louth to within two points.
However, Donegal held their nerve in the closing stages and extended their advantage in final few minutes to rack up a deserved second win of the campaign.
'Paddy is the big worry because it's the other hamstring from the one he hurt against Sligo. He was recovering from that one and tweaked the other hamstring and we have to be careful because we don't want to lose him for all the other games coming up.
'Ronan had to go off after 20 minutes against Dublin with a sore back and Ray hurt the other ankle from the one that he injured against Sligo. We played him at centre-half back and he was doing really well before that.'
While not reading too much into the result, Fitzpatrick was delighted with his side's performance against Pat Gilroy's side, who only fielded 'six or seven' of their first team players.
'To be honest we're not ready to play a full-strength Dublin team at the minute, but I was delighted with the way the lads defended and tackled. I felt that
