Louth were arguably the most improved gaelic football team in the country in 2006. The Wee County was on the verge of hitting rock bottom until the County Board moved to install a new management regime towards the dying embers of 2005, handing the reins to former Monaghan footballer and Blackrock resident Eamonn McEneaney. With a five-year plan in place, the new manager called for patience, citing gradual improvement as his priority. Amazingly, however, Louth achieved much more than this over the course of the year. Full back Colin Goss is delighted how things worked out for the Reds in '06, writes Gerry Robinson. Having attracted more than their share of bad press in recent times, Louth's footballers were in the news for all the right reasons in 2006. St Patricks clubman Colin Goss is an integral part of the stunning Wee County renaissance and the Lordship man is confident that a continuation of the momentum gathered could culminate in a long-overdue Leinster SFC breakthrough. Louth returned to the winners' podium in '06, claiming the national football league Division Two title in considerable style before adding the Tommy Murphy Cup later in the year. In their first campaign under new manager Eamonn McEneaney, the reinvigorated Wee County recorded six straight league wins in spring to earn promotion to the top flight. As if that wasn't enough, they then blitzed Limerick in a semi-final at Newbridge and overwhelmed a strongly-fancied Donegal side in a replayed final in Cavan to land the silverware. What a start for the new order! Louth looked magnificent in the first half of their Leinster championship clash with neighbours Meath at Croke Park in May but the second-half collapse heralded an abrupt end to the fairytale. The team had achieved a huge amount in a short space of time but the reality was that they were still in a transitional state, with only a small arc on the learning curve thus far travelled. Defeat is all part of the process. When Louth were paired with defending All-Ireland champions Tyrone in the first round of the qualifiers, they rubbed their hands enthusiastically. It was the draw they'd wanted and the underdogs set about the task accordingly. The 2-16 apiece draw at Pairc Tailteann on June 17 was the best match of the 2006 senior football championship - bar none - and the Wee County played their part in a real thriller. Though they were outclassed in the first half of the replay at Omagh seven days later, Louth had made an indelible mark on the 2006 championship season. Unbelievably, the Wee County went on to record high-scoring victories over Clare, Monaghan, Antrim and Leitrim (in the final at Croke Park) to claim the Tommy Murphy Cup, a secondary competition granted but a massive fillip for Louth as they prepare for the demands of Division One football. All in all, it was a tremendous learning process for the new-look Louth team, who improved dramatically, restored pride in Wee County football and sent out a clear statement of intent. While it might be a bit too early to claim that 'Louth Are Back', we can state without any fear of contradiction that they have taken the first bold steps down the road to recovery. There's a lot of fine-tuning required still but, as fresh starts go, 2006 should be regarded as a resounding success. Colin Goss, who enjoyed an exceptional year in the No. 3 shirt, agrees that '06 was a thoroughly satisfactory beginning for the new regime: "At the start of the year, the goal was just to improve with every game and to develop into a team that's difficult to beat. We weren't thinking about trying to win anything. "But we got a good run of results and, as confidence grew, we kept winning. We found ourselves in the league final and you raise your goals as you go along. Once you get that far, you want to win it. We felt that we missed our chance the first day against Donegal, but Eamonn convinced us that we were good enough to win the replay. He instilled a lot of belief in the players." It showed as Louth defied all expectations to put Brian McIver's side to the sword at the second time of asking. The newly-crowned NFL Division Two champions outplayed Meath for 35 minutes in Croke Park but lost their way after the interval. In the end, the fact that they had spent the spring months in a lower grade than the Royals told against them. "You really need Division One football," Colin insists. "In most of the games we played in Division Two, the opposition lay down in the second half and this didn't help our preparations for the championship. We never underestimated Meath for a minute, but maybe we underestimated the part we had to play. In our heads we probably felt that they were there for the taking…" Did the short whistle come at the wrong time? "We'd love to have played on because we were going really well. It was frustrating how the second half panned out but we will learn a lot from that experience and hopefully we can put it to good use." Redemption came in the form of the heroic display against Mickey Harte's men at Navan. "It was great to play the All-Ireland champions. We were happy enough when we got Tyrone in the draw because we felt it was a good time to play them. They were missing one or two and we knew that offered us a chance of beating them. We didn't play in the first half and we went out in the second half just to show that we were better than that. We were playing for pride, to prove we weren't a flash in the pan, and in the end we were unlucky not to beat them. "We probably stood back the second day to see what they had to offer and, unfortunately, they came at us with everything. We showed them too much respect in the first half, but Tyrone are a good team and they made us pay. We tried to pull it back in the second half, but we had left ourselves too much to do." Was it frustrating when Laois came along and beat a very subdued Tyrone in the next round? Would Louth have given the O'Moore men a sterner examination? "The teams that play in Division One are more lethal. They have killer instinct and they know how to put their opponents away. When they are on top, they put it on the scoreboard. When you play at that level, you just have a feel for what has to be done. It becomes second nature. That's the advantage Laois had on Louth. When they got their chance, they were able to take it. The challenge facing Louth now is to stay on Division One and to learn how to kill teams off." Despite everything the team achieved in 2006, the players were not entirely happy with their lot. This is a good sign. The sense of disappointment that dominated the dressing-room after their championship exit speaks volumes for the ambition of this side and the response we witnessed in the Murphy Cup also augurs well for the future of football in the county. As long as that edge is retained, complacency is unlikely to set in. "Even though we achieved a lot more than we set out to achieve, we were still a bit disappointed," Colin confirms. "We'd like to have done even better and we'll be going all out for an improvement in 2007. We have to keep improving as a team. Louth won Division Two six years ago and didn't follow up on it, so we have to keep it going this time, or it'll count for little. My ambition is to win a Leinster championship before I finish playing and the rest of the players are driven by the same motivation." Louth can look back on their year's endeavour with a sense of fulfilment. "Getting into Division One is the biggest reward," Colin continues. "Teams like Westmeath and Laois have shown that you have to be playing Division One football on a regular basis if you want to win a Leinster championship, so that's where we need to be. At the start of the year we would definitely have settled for promotion. We never contemplated winning the league out. That was a welcome bonus and the games against Tyrone were also a good experience. "The hunger is there to try and go on to win a Leinster. When you witness the reaction we got when we won the league and the Tommy Murphy Cup, as well as the support we had for the Tyrone games, it spurs you on to try to achieve even more. We believe in ourselves as a team and Louth have magnificent support. I have never witnessed anything like the support we had at Croke Park for the Meath game and I'm looking forward to more occasions like that." After promotion, the danger is that teams will slip straight back down. Are Louth good enough to remain in the top flight? "We are. We have always had the players and we have a great crop of young lads at the moment. It's a question of producing our best form consistently. Certainly, our main objective for 2007 is to stay in Division One, and we'll see how we get on in the championship after that. Colin Goss has been a member of the Louth senior panel for five years. He missed the ill-fated 2005 campaign with a knee injury but was a regular at No. 3 in '06. The Pats clubman is highly impressed by the present county set-up: "It's very professional. I've been in a lot of different set-ups at club and county level and this is the most professional I've come across. We have great respect for Eamonn and the management team and they also have unbelievable respect for the players. It works both ways and that's the cornerstone of the whole thing." Tweet

Most Read Stories