Louth manager Ger Brennan claims storm disruption led to 10 changes to planned team

Louth manager Ger Brennan has said the impact of Storm Éowyn and poor weather in the county so far this year led to making 10 changes from their team named during the week in the victory over Westmeath in Allianz Football League Division 2.

A fisted goal by substitute Sean Reynolds decided an exciting clash in Mullingar.

Brennan said he realised the day before the game he would have to change two thirds of his entire planned selection.

The Wee County manager referenced the storm which hit Ireland on Friday morning and being unable to get enough sessions for some players.

"We had quite an experienced team named [during the week]," Brennan said.

"We pushed hard to try to get some of those lads onto the field, being conscious of how important that first game is and between the storm, the frost a few weeks ago and all sorts of injuries and not getting the chance to play different lads, we had to kind of think on our feet.

"On Saturday morning we had to make an awful lot of changes to the set-up, but I'm very happy with the guys who came in.

"I think there were five or six debuts there to the senior team, which is a huge positive for Louth football going forward, and the return of a couple of older guys who played before Emmet Carolan and Andy McDonald, they are big inclusions as well."

Easy scores by free-kicks being brought forward due to dissent and three on three infringements had a negative impact on Louth in the game, with Brennan putting the blame at his own door.

"That's the manager's fault, I didn't have the lads ready for that. We were poor on that," he said of the rule breaches before offering an assessment of the game.

"We were very lucky to come out of this with two points. At times over the years, even from playing