IT was great for Down to get a win on Saturday night, in Pairc Esler, but we have a lot of improvement to do before this weekend's game against Offaly.
The conditions for the Longford game were atrocious and made the handling extremely difficult.
We played great football in the first half and only for some great goalkeeping we should have had three goals.
In truth though we were always going to win and at no stage did I feel that we were in danger.
Darren O'Hagan made an impressive debut and is a star for the future. Dan Gordon was tried at full back and I thought he had a solid game. Benny McArdle was unlucky to miss out through injury but Dan coped well in his new position cleaning out Brian Kavanagh in the process.
It gives us another option in that area.
Offaly will be a tough assignment and they will have the home crowd to spur them on.
We can go down in confidence because in 2008 we played some great football to be them comprehensively in Tullamore. But I am sure that defeat will be fresh in their minds and they will be up for the challenge.
It is a game that I think we can win and I will be extremely disappointed if we don't.
The big talking point of the weekend was the controversial goal which stole the Leinster championship from the hands of Louth.
Louth played some great football but when they look back they will be disappointed that they game was so close at that late stage.
They had loads of chances to win the game but the seemed to bottle under pressure.
But Joe Sheridan's goal should not have stood and I think that Martin Sludden panicked in the heat of the moment.
His umpires should have put their hands up and told him to disallow the score.
The GAA has to look into the appointments of umpires for big games.
Normally the referee takes a team of umpires who are normally his friend or club members.
Most of these officials are not fully trained and one wonders do they know all the rules.
It was a cruel way to get beat but no one in Louth can condone the actions of their supporters who assaulted the referee at the end of the game.
The referee made a mistake and we should not have been subjected to those shocking scenes we witnessed.
The stewards and Gardai were very slow to protect the referee and in future there should be stewards appointed to escorts referees off the field.