Louth kicked off their Allianz Football League Division 3 campaign in style on Saturday evening with a rousing 12-point win over Laois at O'Moore Park.
The newly promoted side found the net either side of the break and Laois also bemoaned the loss of Colm Begley who was sent off late on in the game for picking up a second yellow card.
Speaking to Newstalk Sport's Oisin Langan after the game, Laois boss Peter Creedon admitted Louth were by some distance the better team on the night.
"We knew from watching the Louth games that it was going to be tough," he said. "Did I expect us to be well beaten like that? 'No' is the honest answer to that question. Louth were comprehensively the better team on the night.
"It's a pity we didn't take a few of our scores early doors, instead of racking up four or five wides. We could have been 0-05 - 0-01 ahead after 10 or 12 minutes. In fairness, Louth just kept running at us and they were the better team."
Creedon struggled to find any particular reason why his team had struggled so badly in their campaign opener, only to say that his side were simply "off the pace".
"Sometimes it's hard to know. We had set up to let them run at us a little bit more toward our own 45, but they seemed to get the runners in behind our half-back line. They kicked very few wides and their shot selection and execution was very accurate. That's something we'll have to look back at on the tape.
"We're also maybe missing a few season campaigners around the middle of the pitch, but we knew that from a time out.
"We're disappointed to conceded 2-16, we normally pride ourselves on being a little bit tighter. Give credit to Louth. We were doing our best but for some reason we were off the pace tonight."
He also identified how important the league would be to them in preparation for the summer and that games will give them a chance to improve as a unit.
"If you were to judge us upon tonight's performance, you would say it's going to take a bit of time to build a team and Division 3 can be uncompromising. That's the nature of inter-county football.
"They take no prisons, so you've got to be really mentally strong. We have to fight hard now for every single point and you never know. If you come through the league with six or seven points and fought for every single one of them, you might come out of the campaign as a real tight strong group. Then maybe we'll be ready for the championship. But at the moment, we all have to acknowledge that we all have work to do."
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