LADIES GAA | Kate hoping to sign-off by helping Louth to a semi-final spot

St Patrick’s forward heads to America next month

Louth Ladies star Kate Flood is hoping to fire the Wee County into the semi-finals of the TG4 Leinster Ladies Intermediate Championship before she departs for America in June.

The St Patrick’s forward will spend three months in San Francisco during the summer and will miss out on Louth’s participation in the knockout stages — if they qualify.

The Reds already have one foot in the last four following a stunning 5–9 to 4–10 victory over Offaly on Saturday and a win — or a draw — against Longford on Tuesday night would seal their progress.

Longford won all eight of their games in Division Four this season meaning that Louth will, once again, go into the game as rank outsiders.

“We don’t mind that,” Flood told Dundalk Sport on Monday afternoon. “Offaly are a Division Three team and we finished in mid-table in Division Four and weren’t expected to beat them but we gave them hell.

“It’ll be the same with Longford. I’m sure both of those counties thought that the Louth game would be a walkover but if we work hard and take our scores like we did on Saturday then we can beat anyone.

“It was definitely the best we have played all year,” she added. “New manager John O’Leary has come in and has worked hard on having us mentally prepared for games and I think we gelled on Saturday. It all came together.”

Louth racked up a total of 5–9 against Offaly on Saturday with Flood (1–7) and Paula Murray (4–1) accounting for all but one of their side’s tally.

That might suggest that Louth are heavily reliant on both players but Flood was quick to stress the importance of the other 13 players.

“It might not look too good that we only had three scorers on Saturday but we could only do that because of the others in the team.

“Scoring is the easy part,” she added. “Paula has speed to burn and is a nightmare for defenders but we were really helped out by the others and defensively we were excellent.

“In the second-half against Offaly we couldn’t get out of our own half for a while but we started winning kickouts and we took our scores well. They didn’t and that was because our defence played so well.”

Saturday’s match was Flood’s first start for her county this year after a facial injury restricted her to just two substitute appearances in the league.

Unfortunately for Louth, she will pull on the red shirt for the last time this summer but Kate said it was an opportunity that she couldn’t pass up.

“I was due to go to New York last year but it didn’t come about,” she stated, “so I’m heading to San Francisco on June 20th until the end of September. If I didn’t go now then I mightn’t have the chance to do it again.”

Helping Louth to book a place in the semi-finals would be a nice way to sign off.

TG4 Leinster Ladies Intermediate Championship Round Two
Longford Ladies v Louth Ladies
Tuesday, May 30th — 8pm
Kenagh GAA, Co Longford