OLLIE (Louth) - Posts: 12136 - 13/09/2016 14:09:51    1913634

I can't see us coming out of the group in fact fear we will struggle again to be honest.

LemonySnickett (Louth) - Posts: 82 - 13/09/2016 14:48:49    1913666

longford, offaly and sligo you would need to look to win them. Longford have Mickey Quinn, so quiten him and their very beatable. Offaly are very like us, limited but hard working and honest. Sligo are hot(1st half v Mayo) and cold(2nd half v Mayo), but again I dont fear them.

Laois and Armagh are prob too physical for us,(unlesss we have a few new additions like Derek Crilly, Liam Shevlin, I think Conor Crawley is worth a look, Shane O hanlon), Antrim, although we beat them twice this year, I think will strengthen further, and Tipp will be pushing on, esp with squad players to come back who will be really hungry.

A lot depends on when you play teams, for example if we are fighting for our lives in last game v a mid table team, then we would likely win.

Also, if a team who was expecting to get promotion at beginning but have a bad start, they can be vulnerable,

Frederick (Louth) - Posts: 474 - 13/09/2016 16:51:33    1913764

Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 5013 - 13/09/2016 19:32:30    1913859

herewe38 (Louth) - Posts: 506 - 13/09/2016 20:00:37    1913881

Wee have four home matches which is great. Tipp is the furthest away trip but there is Motorway all the way down to Thurles. Portlaoise and Tullamore are handy to get too as well. Win our four home matches and wee will be safe.

OLLIE (Louth) - Posts: 12136 - 13/09/2016 20:19:47    1913893

All of those are beatable and Louth are dangerous when they are the underdog, it is Div 3 after all lads!

MR (Louth) - Posts: 2570 - 14/09/2016 16:18:37    1914244

Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 5013 - 14/09/2016 18:49:40    1914321

OLLIE (Louth) - Posts: 12136 - 14/09/2016 19:49:47    1914341

i dont see home advantage been that big of a factor to be honest, especially with our home ground in drogheda, where I know a lot of the players do not like to play. Should try get Haggardstown under lights of a sat night.

Lads Tipp slaughtered us in the qualifiers last year, and reached and all ireland semi this year, I know the draw was nice but they still did it? It would be quite the upset if we were to get anything from them. Sligo also hammered us in div 3 in 2015, but there hot an cold like I said, so hope we get them cold.
Armagh went to Tyrone on the final game this year and got a draw. Granted they were fighting for their lives and Tyrone already promoted, but could we do that? As a previous poster mentioned, look at longfords wins in qualifiers this year. This is most certainly our level and I would regard staying in this division as a success for league 2017.

Frederick (Louth) - Posts: 474 - 15/09/2016 12:20:09    1914578

Staying up in this division will be a good achievement anything after that would be a massive bonus but let's be realistic lads.Stay up and consolidate is the best for the county at this stage.

Novak (Louth) - Posts: 96 - 15/09/2016 13:17:38    1914602

Overall, I think it's a very favourable looking fixture list, considering what it could've been.
4 home games (Drogheda or not) is still a better scenario than 4 away games.
Of those 4 games, I can see us potentially winning 2 of them, and maybe 3 if things go our way. On current form, its unlikely that we'd take anything from the away trip to Tipp, and Laois are probably a step ahead of us too. Offaly in Tullamore is the away game where we should really be targeting taking something out of. Doing that, should ensure we preserve our status in division 3 for the year. Offaly and Longford are pretty fair benchmarks for us I would think. They came up to division 3 the season before last and consolidated there last season. They'll both have their eyes set firmly on being in the shake-up for promotion this year. Longford seem to be able to pull big results out of the hat every so often, but I think Offaly are better equipped to push for a promotion spot this year.

Lets be realistic here, promotion out of this division is unlikely, not impossible, but unlikely. It is absolutely imperative that we consolidate in 2017 and build from there. Laois, Armagh & Tipp probably fighting for the 2 promotion spots. I'd stick Offaly in behind them, only marginally ahead of Longford, Sligo, Antrim and ourselves. I think we're a division 3 calibre team. But we may need to earn our stripes here first before we can push on. Relegation would be disastrous. Sligo at home on the last day of the league is a good fixture. If we're in a position where we absolutely need a win in the last game, that's the fixture I would have wanted.

Whitey_Toppskin (Louth) - Posts: 60 - 15/09/2016 16:43:18    1914721

You cannot build or make progress in Louth's situation because our players have no previous record of doing it at underage for Louth, so why should they be expected to impress or progress?
We have had much better players in the past who struggled with Division 3 too.....

herewe38 (Louth) - Posts: 506 - 15/09/2016 21:10:55    1914841

Staying up in this division will be a good achievement anything after that would be a massive bonus but let's be realistic lads.Stay up and consolidate is the best for the county at this stage.

Novak (Louth) - Posts: 96 - 15/09/2016 22:05:12    1914869