
Brennan shows Louth the way to their ‘holy grail'
A winner as a player with his club St Vincent's and Dublin, and now a winner as Louth manager, the county's first Leinster Senior Football Championship title for 68 years, Ger Brennan has guided a group of players who had lost the last two finals to Dublin, and showed them the way to their 'holy grail' as some had described it – the Delaney Cup.
'It's surreal and I'm just really thrilled for the lads, the group of players, the amount of work that those guys put in, it's just incredible,' a beaming Brennan told local Louth media pitch side at Croke Park after the game,
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Irish Times
7 hours ago
- Irish Times
FAI Cup holders Drogheda United to face Shamrock Rovers in quarter-finals
Shamrock Rovers and St Patrick's Athletic have avoided each other in the FAI Cup quarter-finals with Stephen Bradley's Hoops drawn away to defending champions Drogheda United . St Pat's welcome Galway United to Richmond Park while the remaining Premier Division clubs, Cork City and Sligo Rovers , will expect to progress to the semi-finals. Cork travel to Donegal to face Finn Harps while Kerry host Sligo at Mounthawk Park after John Russell's side knocked Bohemians out of the cup last Friday at Dalymount Park after a goal from teenager Owen Elding. The English-born Elding is currently completing the necessary paper work for Fifa, to make him eligible for Jim Crawford's Republic of Ireland under-21 squad ahead of next month's European Championship qualifiers against Moldova away and Andorra at Tallaght Stadium. READ MORE RTÉ will select two of the last eight matches to be broadcast live on the week ending Sunday, September 14th with the other two ties on LOITV. The final takes place at the Aviva Stadium on November 9th. In the women's FAI Cup semi-final, Shamrock Rovers will play Athlone Town and Treaty United drew Bohemians. Both games will be shown live on TG4. FAI Cup quarter-final draw Kerry FC v Sligo Rovers, Mounthawk Park Drogheda United v Shamrock Rovers, United Park Finn Harps v Cork City, Finn Park St Patrick's Athletic v Galway United, Richmond Park FAI Cup women's semi-final draw Shamrock Rovers v Athlone Town Bohemians v Treaty United All games to be played in the week ending Sunday, September 14th


The Irish Sun
15 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Steve Williams tells Shelbourne stars to seize ‘once-in-a-lifetime' European chance
Williams says the Conference League play-off with Linfield is an opportunity the modern squad must savour STEVE WILLIAMS says that going close to the group stages with Shelbourne was not the proudest achievement of his career. But it was the biggest, and he told the modern day Reds to savour every moment of their opportunity now. 2 Former Shelbourne keeper Steve Williams has urged the Dublin-based side to give it a real go in Europe 2 Shelbourne face Linfield in the Conference League play-off aiming to take the club into the group stages for the first Advertisement Shelbourne face Linfield this week and next in the Conference League play-off aiming to take the club into the group stages for the first time in their history. And the game brings back memories of 31 years ago when Shelbourne went close to being the first Irish club to do so in the Champions League. Just 32 clubs reached the promised land in those days and the Reds had a glorious run seeing off KR Reykjavik and Hajduk Split before facing Deportivo La Coruna. Goalkeeper Williams told SunSport: 'They'd been in the Champions League semi-finals the season before that. Advertisement 'I remember watching them against Porto and they could have beaten them. Porto won 1-0 on aggregate and went on to win the final. 'And then lo and behold, we're playing them a few months later for a chance to get into the Champions League group stage.' The first leg at Lansdowne Road was a 22,000 sell-out (terracing was not allowed be used) and Shels then headed for La Coruna in Spain just 90 minutes from glory. Williams continued: 'Half-time in the Raizor, we went to the bathroom and were looking at each other going 'holy s***, we're only 45 minutes from the group stages!' Advertisement 'We'd missed a sitter in the first half, Jay Byrne put a free header wide that you'd always back him to score as well. 'But the last 35 minutes in the second half, Deportivo went up a gear. They showed us that the gap between us was too big. Premier League star, 25, breaks silence on awkwardly-sized shorts after suffering repeated wardrobe malfunctions 'Nowadays, you'd go straight in the Europa group stage if you were in that tie. But we then had Lille in a play-off for that group stage. 'Unfortunately, Lille were really good. I think they were actually better than Deportivo, they were more organised. We drew (2-2) at home and lost (2-0) over there. 'Those games were big. Your whole football life is based on playing the best players in Europe, and sometimes the world. Advertisement 'And we did that for a spell. We didn't do it all of our careers but we weren't outperformed and we put a dot on the map for Irish soccer at the time. 'I think that's why a lot of us stayed in Ireland then when we could have moved to the UK, the chance to do something in Europe was special.' Welshman Williams, who settled in Dundalk when he first moved to Ireland in 1997 and has remained in the town to this day, also acknowledged the financial incentives are there too. He said: 'I think it was just over a €100,000 to win the tie. The Euro had just come in a few years earlier. It wouldn't have paid off your mortgage, but it would have paid a good chunk.' And what happened two years later is why Williams believes Shelbourne's players should relish these moments, as he saw how quickly things could change. Advertisement The goalkeeper won the league - his fifth - with Shelbourne in 2006 that he counts as his proudest achievement. But that was because of the turmoil off the pitch. MONEY MATTERS Williams added: 'We probably only got paid four months that year. I was working in a bar to put fuel in my car to get to Dublin for training, which no one knows. 'I was a full-time footballer…No money coming in, two young children, a mortgage…it was demoralising two years after nearly having your mortgage paid off! 'Myself and David Crawley, who also lived in Dundalk, missed some training sessions because we couldn't afford the petrol. 'But we still won the league. Of all my medals, that is the one that still takes pride of place because of what it took to win it. Advertisement 'It was, I suppose, an end of a chapter too as it was Shelbourne's last league before last year.' And while the League of Ireland has largely moved away from the boom and bust cycle then, Williams insisted that players must take the chance now, because it may never come again. He added: 'The year after we played Glentoran in the first round and won it well, but nothing ever matched the Deportivo year for us anyway. 'It helped me at Dundalk (as goalkeeping coach) as you could see what was needed. We were fit but didn't have the same technical level as Deportivo. 'Now the players are fitter - there is no gap in fitness to the top teams - and technically better as well so it become more a chess game where one thing can change a game. Advertisement 'When Dundalk reached the group stages, I felt that was it. At first we slogged for a few years, lost to BATE and a few others. 'But by the time we played BATE Borisov again (in 2016) we knew how to stay strong defensively, ride out the tough moments and win games. 'Shels….they'll fancy it against Linfield as I do think there is a difference in fitness. But it won't be a big difference.'


Irish Examiner
a day ago
- Irish Examiner
Smiles trump scores as Hurling for Cancer Research match draws big crowd to Carlow
Hurling for Cancer Research: Jim Bolger's Stars 9-25 Davy Russell's Best 8-14 Long before the Killeshin Pipe Band led the pre-match parade, the main stand in Netwatch Cullen Park was already wedged. They were packed in on the terraces too for an evening of hurling, entertainment and, most importantly, fundraising in the fight against a common enemy. Joe Canning summed up the remarkable machine that the Hurling for Cancer charity game has become when he told the crowd in an interview that he was late because of the traffic around Carlow Town. Jim Bolger's Stars won the game although, truth be told, nobody seemed too bothered. Not even the Stars themselves. Their official tally of 9-25 was actually way off. The scoreboard couldn't go into double figures for goals so three points were added on instead for the last few goals. And even at that, whoever was working the machine failed to include the very last of those goals, scored in garbage time by former Kilkenny star Walter Walsh. A lax approach was obvious enough after the very first play. Lee Chin whipped a pass across the pitch to TJ Reid who appeared to split the posts routinely enough but with the umpires appearing to forget their duties, no flag was raised. So no score stood. Tipperary great Brendan Cummins, fresh from his battle with Annaverna Mountain in the All-Ireland Poc Fada final, defied his birth certificate again. In the first 10 minutes, the 50-year-old pulled off five different goal saves, thwarting the efforts of Adam Screeney, Dublin dual star Con O'Callaghan, Rory O'Connor and TJ Reid. Each of the saves got a giant cheer. Aidan McCarthy came on for Jim Bolger's All-Stars and scored their sixth goal, prompting Marty Morrissey and Anthony Daly on the live stadium commentary to suggest that he might use it as a springboard to a county return in 2026. Fingers will remain crossed in Clare. Not even the promise of a free night in a Liam Griffin-owned hotel for the Man of the Match prompted any great increase in intensity. Rather, it was an evening for tricks and skills, overhead pulls and ground strikes. Bolger's crew hit the interval with a 8-7 to 4-7 advantage. Despite what the official scoreline suggested at the end of the game, the players in yellow added another seven goals before full-time. Those goals came from the hurls of Offaly duo Brian Duignan and Brian Carroll, who struck a brace of goals apiece, Kilkenny great Eddie Brennan, Reid and Walsh. Commentator Aisling O'Reilly showed her skills with 1-1 for Davy Russell's Best. Dublin brothers Brian and Ronan Hayes also struck goals for the reds while Sean Carroll reeled off a hat-trick of late points for them. It was an evening when smiles were more important than scores though and the players and various celebrities hung around on the field afterwards to sign autographs and pose for selfies. For once on a GAA pitch, it turned out that everyone was a winner.