“There’s a lot of learning” | Ray Dempsey reflects on League defeat in Louth

A third successive league defeat was Limerick’s fate on Sunday as Louth made it three on the bounce against the Shannonsiders.

Despite a very positive performance, Limerick left Ardee on the wrong side of the result yesterday to leave them stranded at the bottom of Division two of the National Football League as the only pointless side.

A nip and tuck opening half was followed by a dominant third quarter from the hosts and that would prove the difference in round three as Louth picked up a hugely valuable pair of points.

Limerick’s opening pair of contests were always going to be tricky with Derry and Dublin in the opposite corner but Louth would have been looked upon as a game to target with both emerging from Division 3 last year.

And the game highlighted that with the Wee county just emerging with the 1-15 to 1-13 victory. Limerick’s battle is certainly now an uphill one with Cork, Meath, Clare and Kildare to come.

Yet, manager Ray Dempsey has remained in upbeat spirits as his team have showed “resilience” thus far in their three outings.

“It depends on which way you look at progress, if it’s results then it’s not we’ve three from three defeats but I think it is. the players showed a lot of resilience and a want to win the game. Playing with the first half breeze, we probably didn’t show enough courage and go for it to put enough scores on the board.

“All the sides we are coming up against are very tough and there’s going to be very little in a lot of these games. We’re experiencing this level for the first time so there’s a lot of learning going on. We have to keep working to see how good we can become because that’s what is in our control.”

And while the result was not the desired one, Limerick were boosted by the sight of Hugh Bourke starting the contest and Brian Donovan making his seasonal bow from the bench.

Bourke featured in the first two rounds but was deemed fit to start as he fired over a pair from play. Donovan was the one to find the net with the Monaleen man making a long awaited return from injury. Cathal Downes also recovered from the knock that saw him miss out against Dublin as he brought the teams within one point with five to play.

Dempsey was happy to see Bourke and Donovan return, highlighting their experience while he also praised Downes in just his second league outing.

“They (Hugh Bourke and Brian Donovan) are two huge players in Limerick. they are going to work awful hard to get better going forward. They will bring a lot of experience and leadership to the squad, there’s no doubt about that. The strength in the panel, there’s a lot of young lads coming through.

“I thought Cathal Downes was outstanding today and that’s only his second League game for Limerick ever. I don’t like to categorize players, they are doing their best and they definitely have in their control to be better players and that happens on the training field.”

Things will not get much easier for Limerick with a trip to Pairc Ui Chaoimh awaiting this weekend with the Shannonsiders urgently needing to get points on the board.

Improvements have improved from week to week but that will need translating into a result starting with Cork on Sunday.