Delight & devastation in the one says Leitrim boss Steven Poacher after first win of 2025

If ever a manager summed up the feelings of his players and his team’s supporters in just three words, Steven Poacher certainly did it perfectly last Sunday when he described his reaction to Leitrim’s first win of 2025 as “Delight and devastation in the one!”

Leitrim went searching for a miracle as they needed to beat Tipperary and by a big enough margin to overcome either Antrim or London to sneak into one of the three third placed qualifier spots. The first part was accomplished with a 3-9 to 0-10 victory over Tipperary in TEG Cusack Park but unfortunately, Antrim’s eight point win over London ended Leitrim’s season for 2025.

So you can see why the Leitrim manager said “Delight and devastation in the one. I’m enormously grossly proud of those lads, they've been through the mincer. I said to them before the game today, you know think back to Baltimore, 20 points down at halftime, dark holes, dark places, but they came through it.

“They came through it and over the last, I would say six, seven weeks, probably since the Mayo game, I think they've played some really good football and the lads will take a massive, massive step forward here today after this, a massive step forward.”

At one stage, Leitrim were in the coveted third spot, leaving Steven feeling ‘weird’ along the sideline: “There was one stage there we were through and it was a weird feeling - I've never been in that situation before. It was only about 12 minutes to go, I heard for the first time Antrim are a point up.

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“You're thinking ‘Jesus we have a chance here’ and then that maybe seeps onto the field and players get a little bit carried away. I wish I hadn't heard it because it is a distraction for a few minutes. But listen, today was just about trying to win that game and then see what happens in the other game.

“Had we did it, we would have been playing either Westmeath, Offaly or Wexford and we would have been down Cillian McGloin, we would have been down Mark Diffley, we would have been down Darren Cox, we would have been down Squidgy (Keith Keegan), we would have been down Paul Honeyman and you're just thinking to yourself wow, that's the mad thing.”

Looking back over the Tailteann Cup campaign, Steven felt the damage was done in Newbridge: “The Kildare game was where the damage was done, that 10 minute, it was just a seven, eight minute spell before half time where they kicked 10 points. Kildare as the masters at bullying teams when they're in front and you'd like to see Kildare now step up and challenge for Leinster titles where they rightfully should be.

“We went into the Sligo game very confident and we should have beat Sligo, Coxy puts the ball in the net, we're 10 points up and it's possibly game over, but today we were magnificent, the homework that was done in Tipperary. 

“I have to give Anthony McGrath a lot of credit. “Anthony has seen Tip playing twice this year, he produced an unbelievably detailed report and the boys followed the game plan. We thought we could score goals, that was the whole idea that we'd get in behind them because they're just man to man, so we felt we could get goals and we did.

“We should have had another three or four at least but probably just a wee bit of inexperience at times, not knowing, just to slow it down, be calm.”

Steven admitted that it has been a tough year but expressed his admiration for their players for their commitment to Leitrim and their families for their unwavering support: “It's been tough, it's been tough and I've been able to go back to County Down and go to school and not have it in my face every day. These lads have to go into their clubs, their shops, their cafes, you know, out for a pint, these lads have had it all the time and they're the lads that I feel for.

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"But on the flip side of it, you've seen the elation on the field there today with the families, the friends - they're the people that matter.  Some boy in his bedroom writing on a message board or whatever it happens to be, they don't interest me because these boys are in the trenches, they're the boys that are fighting the good fight, they're in the arena and that's the people that matter.

“Our motto in the last couple of weeks, particularly the Mayo game, it's been family and that's the key thing - who you're doing it for, you're doing it for your family. I've met so many parents there today who are so thankful and grateful for the work that we've done with these young lads, because they're young men and they're growing and they're learning.

“I'm a teacher 24 years now, it's a difficult bloody world to grow up in. I grew up in a much more, we were on about building tree huts, that was our stress. Now, you've social media, you've Instagram, you've all sorts of image and everything and it's a tough world for young people.

“What we want to do is we want to give these lads an environment where they can grow, where they can develop, they can excel and that's the key thing moving forward, that we get that. Inter-county football is very complex, you need a good medical backup, you need a good S&C, you need everything and we have a lot of pieces of jigsaw in place here in Leitrim and it's just now about getting the lads really, really honed in over the winter months.”