Louth football made massive strides under Eamonn McEneaney and the new management set-up in 2006. Nowhere was this more evident than at Pairc Tailteann in Navan on Saturday June 17 when the Wee County battled out an enthralling draw with defending All-Ireland champions Tyrone. The match was widely hailed as one of the best games of the '06 championship season, so the Reds certainly made their mark and captured plenty of public affection along the way. Football in the county was on its knees. Late in 2005, the County Board moved to remedy a chronic condition, installing a new management team who would have five uninterrupted years at the helm. A huge leap of faith. The new manager, his backroom team and the players repaid that faith in 2006 with a marked improvement that has restored pride in Louth GAA. A quick fix was not expected. Gradual improvement was the order of the day. Well, let it be said that we got much, much more in the first term of the new regime! A national league Division Two title followed by one of the performances of the year against Tyrone at Navan. Louth also demonstrated great character in the third quarter of their replay defeat to the O'Neill County at Healy Park, Omagh but will want to forget that barren second-half display against Meath at Croke Park in May, when everything went decidedly pear-shaped. Thus, nobody is getting carried away. There is much to be done yet and Louth football remains a work in progress. But we have evidenced a very clear step in the right direction and the signs are encouraging that the bad old days could soon be a thing of the past. With four years still to run on the five-year plan, Division One football lying in wait and the Darver Project up and running, the Wee County could emerge as genuine Leinster contenders in the not-too-distant future. The devil's advocate would point out that the Tyrone team that travelled to Navan in mid-June was severely depleted from that which had landed Sam the previous September and had lost to a poor Derry side in Ulster, but to say that is to miss the point. Mickey Harte's teams - regardless of the starting XV - carry an aura, and this can be the most difficult thing to get past. Louth rose to the occasion on the day and showed no regard for their esteemed opponents' reputations as players like John O'Brien, Paddy Keenan and Darren Clarke, to name just three, mesmerised the colourful attendance as well as a national live Saturday afternoon TV audience that quickly forgot all about he World Cup, proving that they can match the best that other counties have to offer. For once, the inferiority complex was gone. Under the focussed and driven McEneaney, it may not return. Few people gave Louth any chance when their second-half collapse against the Royals condemned them to a first-round qualifier meeting with Ulster giants Tyrone. The players had other ideas, however, and proceeded to produce the best performance by a Louth football team in over a decade. The match finished all square, 2-16 apiece, after extra time and the Red Hands were relieved to get out of Navan with their championship hopes still intact. Rather than dwelling on the disappointment of having to play their 'home' match at a neutral venue, Louth got stuck in from the off and were level with Tyrone on five occasions during the first half, before Owen Mulligan's double strike late in the opening period gave the northerners a seemingly-unassailable 2-7 to 0-6 interval advantage. Those two goals seemed to have broken Louth's resistance but the Wee County had reduced the deficit to just two points by the 48th minute. There were four points in it as the match went into injury time but JP Rooney's goal was the score that ultimately forced 20 added minutes. Unbelievably, Louth eased two points clear in the first period of additional time but were unable to close out the game. The would have won if Mark Stanfield's rocket shot in the first half of extra time had crept inside the post, but it wasn't to be… Tyrone's first three points came from 2005 Footballer of the Year Stephen O'Neill but Louth levelled on all three occasions, thanks to Darren Clarke, Christy Grimes and scoring corner back Jamie Carr. Paddy Keenan had Louth ahead for the first time with a twelfth-minute point after a tidy pick-up. When O'Neill added a 45, Clarke responded with the first of four free conversions for the St Marys clubman. Eamonn McEneaney's men had sneaked ahead but Tyrone eventually pulled clear with points from Philip Jordan and Mulligan (2) to lead by 0-7 to 0-5 and Mulligan goaled twice in the final minute of the first half. Louth's only reply before the short whistle was a point from Mark Stanfield, who was set up by captain Martin Farrelly. They did not deserve to trail by seven points at the turnaround, but you can't lose concentration for even a split second at this level and the lesson administered by Tyrone's bleach-headed, tattooed talisman was a harsh one. Penrose was wide for the Ulster county within 30 seconds of the re-start and Clarke pointed a free before O'Neill got a minor for Tyrone. Clarke then scored from play via the uprights after magnificent fielding by Paddy Keenan and a good John Neary pass. 2-8 to 0-8 after 43 minutes. Louth were without the injured Aaron Hoey, who was replaced in the starting line-up by Ronan Carroll. Seven minutes before the interval, Ray Finnegan came on for Carroll. The St Pats clubman helped himself to a 47th-minute point, again off a post, before Mark Stanfield brought Louth back into contention with a clinically-dispatched 48th-minute goal. Louth had closed the gap to two points (2-8 to 1-9) and there were still 22 minutes remaining. Mulligan (free, 50) and Farrelly (51) found the target before Raymond Mulgrew (53) and Clarke (54) also traded points - but Louth didn't score for ten minutes, while Tyrone had scores from Enda McGinley and Mulligan. Clarke and McGinley swapped scores, leaving Tyrone leading by 2-13 to 1-12 with five minutes of normal time left. With four in it, Clarke opted to take his point from a 13-metre free in the first minute of injury time. It was a wise decision as JP Rooney had the ball in the net almost immediately. Played in by a combination of Keenan, Stanfield and Mark Brennan, the Naomh Mairtin attacker forced the ball home at the second attempt to send the vociferous Louth support into a state of euphoria. There would be 20 added minutes. Substitute Brian White was on target with two spectacular points as Louth seized the initiative in the first period of extra time. Centre forward Brennan also chipped in with a point at the midway stage in that period and Louth led by 2-16 to 2-14 with ten minutes left in an epic encounter. Unfortunately, Tyrone's pressure eventually told and Mulligan was on target with frees in the first and last minutes of the second period of extra time. Tyrone got off to a solid start in the replay and prevailed by 1-12 to 1-7 at Healy Park on Saturday June 24. The galvanised All-Ireland champions rattled off 1-7 without reply during a devastating twenty-minute period in the first half and, in truth, the quality of their football was such that the visitors were left chasing shadows at times. Darren Clarke opened the scoring with an early free but the Wee County then went 28 minutes without a score while Colm McCullagh (0-4), Owen Mulligan (0-2), Sean Cavanagh, Martin Penrose, Raymond Mulgrew and Ryan Mellon all pointed for the O'Neill County. Enda McGinley got the winners' goal as early as the sixth minute. Clarke also registered Louth's second point and Mark Stanfield popped over a 45 after Ray Finnegan's goalbound shot had been deflected wide by goalkeeper John Devine. But the shellshocked Reds trailed by 1-10 to 0-3 at the break. Tyrone had been masterful in that opening period and had already done enough to book a place in the second qualifying round. Mickey Harte's well-drilled charges were content to defend their lead thereafter, which they achieved comfortably. Louth upped their performance on the resumption, while Tyrone started to play within themselves. Points from Mark Brennan, Mark Stanfield and Aaron Hoey (2) closed the gap to seven, 1-11 to 0-7, with 20 minutes left. Ryan McMenamin was red-carded in the 56th minute but Louth were unable to exploit the numerical superiority and Paddy Keenan's goal on the hour was their last score of the 2006 championship. Thus another name is added to the list of counties that have slammed the backdoor in Louth's face - Westmeath, Meath, Cavan, Galway, Monaghan, Tyrone. The backdrop to Louth's clash with the Red Hands was interesting - Tyrone had failed to score in the first half of their Ulster championship defeat to neighbours Derry, while Louth didn't manage a second-half score against their neighbours and Leinster rivals Meath. The Meath game took place at Croker on Sunday May 14 and Louth led by 0-10 to 0-6 at the interval. The inexplicable collapse that followed saw them concede 1-9 without replay in the second period as the grateful Royals, inspired by Graham Geraghty, went on to win by eight points. Louth were awesome in the first half and were full value for the interval advantage given to them by an excellent all-round team display and scores from five of their starting forwards, both midfielders and a corner back, namely Darren Clarke (0-2), Aaron Hoey (0-2), JP Rooney, Mark Stanfield, Christy Grimes, Martin Farrelly, Paddy Keenan and Jamie Carr. The second-half performance was non-existent but the Division Two league winners redeemed themselves with their brave display against the reigning All-Ireland champions, who they matched for 90 magical minutes at Pairc Tailteann. The Louth SF team that drew with Tyrone at Navan: Stuart Reynolds; David Brennan, Colin Goss, Jamie Carr (0-1); John O'Brien, Peter McGinnity, John Neary; Martin Farrelly (0-1), Paddy Keenan (0-1); Christy Grimes (0-1), Mark Brennan (0-1), Ronan Carroll, J.P. Rooney (1-0), Mark Stanfield (1-1), Darren Clarke (0-7). Subs: Ray Finnegan (0-1), Brian White (0-2), Christy Grimes, Trevor O'Brien, Mick Fanning Tweet

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