Mistakes cost Leitrim says manager Olcan Conway as hurlers in last chance saloon

Leitrim’s Lory Meagher Cup ambitions are hanging by a thread as manager Olcan Conway bemoaned a series of uncharacteristic errors that cost the Green & Gold dearly against Lancashire last Saturday in Shane McGettigan Park.

Suffering a 4-15 to 1-15 defeat after going in level at halftime, it was easy to pinpoint where it all went wrong for the home side as handling errors and turnovers hit Conway’s side hard in the third quarter, a fact that the manager struggled to explain.

“We weren’t overly happy with our first half performance either, we thought we made a lot of individual mistakes, handling errors, possession errors and we were upset about that but at halftime, what we thought we needed to do was reset, cut out the mistakes and settle down and get back to hurling again.

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“Unfortunately that third quarter, mistakes seemed to double and treble and we started coughing up easy scores and in fairness to Lancashire, they punished us. We deserved what happened to us in that third quarter, I would say 90% of it was caused by ourselves. 

“They turned us over so many times when we were in possession and we missed so many pick-ups, I don’t know how many rucks we lost today. They just seemed to dominate us for a lot of the dirty ball and even when we had possession, they turned us over far too easily.”

The Leitrim manager stressed he was not having a go at his players but admitted that individual mistakes cost his team: “I’m not trying to blame any players or anything like that but a lot of individual errors that we don’t normally make and I don’t know if that is down to the pressure. 

“We knew that Lancashire won last week and we had a draw and we felt that if we could get a win, it would put us in a great position going forward and we’re treating every game that we play like an All-Ireland Semi-Final, it doesn’t matter who the opposition is, we have to try and beat them to secure a spot in the final. 

“Did that add too much pressure? We seemed to be very tense, very stiff and just not our usual selves or as composed on the ball as we usually are. I don’t like blaming the players but the players are in there in the dressing room and they know they made a lot of individual errors.

“We had a good chat about it and those small mistakes can cost you at this level in the championship. We maybe got away with one or two of them in the League and we were punished very well by Lancashire you have to say.”

Olcan did praise his player’s resolve in adversity: “The lads kept going to the end, they kept trying but they knew the game was probably gone going into the fourth quarter but they didn’t stop trying, they still kept trying to get goals and points to get back into the game but unfortunately we didn’t.”

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The loss leaves Leitrim on the precipice in terms of the Lory Meagher Cup and Olcan says only victories will keep their hopes alive: “We have to go and win our last three games, there is no doubt about it. Our destiny, I think, is in our hands, it is a weird sort of a championship with weird results last week that you wouldn’t have predicted.

“I don’t think anybody would have predicted us getting beaten by nine points by Lancashire today either, there will be some weird results going forward and we just have to go and win our three games and see where that takes us.”