Established Louth eye up a telling imprint on summer fare

"You'll never forget the day that a great injustice was done to Louth football". The words of former Wee County boss Peter Fitzpatrick after the controversial loss in the 2010 Leinster final against Meath.

Eleven years on since Joe Sheridan scored 'that goal', Fitzpatrick spoke to RTÉ Sport about the events on that July day.

"The GAA should have dealt with the matter, not Meath or the Leinster Council. Days had passed by and I think the GAA were hoping it would go away. Before we knew it, we were back in Croke Park playing the Dubs in the qualifiers.

"What could have been a glorious summer ended with our lads playing again giving their all. We lost, there was no shame in that, but I still feel let down by what happened in the Leinster final. Louth’s best team in half a century got a raw deal. It’s hard to put it to one side."

Louth certainly caught the eye with the football they played in that summer of 2010, with their demolition of Kildare in the Leinster quarter-final standing out. The Lilywhites would go on to reach the last four in the Sam Maguire race. A Louth side that had a bit of zip about them would not have been disgraced if they had reached the All-Ireland series.

Fourteen years on and that now must be a target for the side managed by Ger Brennan. This evening, the green jersey of Meath will again stand in their way as they look to make a winning start in Group 4 of the All-Ireland round-robin series. Games against Monaghan and Kerry will follow. With three of the quartet to advance, Louth will feel they can make more strides in a campaign where they already asked questions of Dublin for much of the Leinster final.

And while Louth are continuing to make strides on the pitch, plans for a new county ground on a