Louth manager Mickey Harte says a straight knock-out football championship “doesn’t do justice” to teams that are trying to improve.

Harte’s charges went down to Offaly after extra time yesterday in a gripping Leinster championship first round tie at Pairc Tailteann, where it finished 3-19 to 0-19 in favour of the Faithful men.

The defeat spells an end to Harte’s first season in charge of the Wee County, having secured promotion to Division 3 two weeks ago.

“You hate losing championship matches, in particular losing championship matches that are a done deal,” he is quoted saying by The42.ie.

“You’d love to have the qualifiers or you’d love to have the Tailteann Cup here, for players to go now and say you’ve put a huge effort into what you’ve done so far, there’s something else to go for.

“I think it doesn’t do justice to the teams that are trying to make themselves better and climb the ladder a bit.”

On his team’s performance itself, he added: “We probably were a bit wasteful, I thought, even throughout the whole game. There were good chances that came our way, but you don’t know if this is poor execution or the pressure of the opposition – probably a combination of both.

“I wouldn’t fault the players. I think they gave us a huge effort there today, and they were playing a bit above what we’ve met so far in terms of opposition. And that’s a learning experience for them, knowing that where they’re heading up to another division now, life gets tougher.”

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