Leitrim lost to Waterford in Dungarvan's Fraher Field last March, a result that put promotion beyond Moran's side, but the Derry man went further into the past to deliver a warning against taking the Deise men for granted next Sunday in Ballinamore (2.30 pm throw-in).

"I don't take Waterford for granted," said Mickey, "We almost lost a game when I was in charge of Derry to Waterford and it took a late Johnny McGoldrick point to get us the win. They handed us a lesson in football. Waterford are big men and mobile and we won't be taking them for granted next Sunday."

However, most of Moran's comments last Sunday were reserved for the current interpretation of the game's rules as he said after the six-point defeat to Sligo - "It was very disappointing, so frustrating. If I'm being honest, I think there is too much talk about the rules of Gaelic football and not enough about the people who implement the rules.

"There seems to be a group, led by somebody, pushing all these rules. I think they need to do it for the referees rather than concentrating on the rules. They need to help to get the referees to be confident, get them up to a level of fitness and helping them get up to a high standard.

"This is not blaming referees out there today but we are doing the best we can, we train the lads but then we go out onto the field and we're not sure what is happening. I blame Croke Park and if they can get that sorted out, get the referees up to speed and you might see everybody enjoying the game again."

Preparations for a vital Allianz National League campaign have been hampered badly by the poor weather in recent weeks and Moran is not happy, calling on Croke Park to help provide top class training facilities for counties like Leitrim.

"The FBD League has been a disaster in terms of preparation. The bad weather has curtailed our preparations and it hasn't been advantageous and because we haven't been able to work on a field, players are getting injuries. We were going into today with Daniel Beck, James Glancy of Carrick, Shane canning and Declan Gilhooley all carrying injuries.

"We had six backs to play here and we had to play Colin Regan in defence when we would prefer to have him at wing-forward."

The lack of top class facilities is a contributory factor to Leitrim's injury problems - "You take Tyrone, Galway, Derry, they are training on all-weather surfaces with lights and can play full matches on both pitches.

"We haven't been able to do that. We trained last week in Mullingar and the pitch was so bad that we couldn't do anything. It is holding us back big time and hopefully Croke Park will get waken up and do something about the less prominent counties in terms of prominent counties.

"At the moment, I know where we are training on Tuesday but after that, I don't know.