New Leitrim joint captain Mark Diffley delighted to leave Waterford with two points

Describing his elevation to the role of joint captain for the Leitrim footballers as a “privilege”, Mark Diffley was delighted to be heading home with two points after a long trip to Fraher Field in Dungarvan last Sunday for the opening game of the Allianz NFL Division 4 campaign.

Leitrim’s 2-17 to 1-5 victory was as comfortable as the scoreline suggests but Mark was just happy to get the win: “First day out and all we wanted was two points on the board and we got that. We’re happy enough, scoring 2-17 today and we never get anything easy down here so we’re happy with that.

“Dungarvan is a hard place to go to, Leitrim teams have come here before and struggled, the conditions don’t make it great and Waterford have a really good spirit about their team so to come away with two points was a box ticked.”

Being appointed joint captain with Donal Wrynn was something Mark is very proud of: “It is a privilege for me and my family and club, I got a lot of messages when it was announced. Lucky for me, it was a personal milestone I wanted to get to and I want to do the best for the jersey going forward.”

READ OUR MATCH REPORT FROM FRAHER FIELD IN DUNGARVAN

The St Mary’s Kiltoghert clubman agreed that Leitrim may have dropped their intensity levels at times during the second half: “Maybe we got a bit too comfortable but that is always something we can work on, it wasn’t a perfect game by any means and that’s all we’re trying to do, keep getting closer to that perfect game. Maybe when we got on top, it was comfortable but it is something to work on.”

Mark was also pleased with the impact of young players on the squad: “We’ve new challenges, a small bit of turnover but you see the likes of Jamie McGrail coming in there, Jack Foley making his debut didn’t look out of place at all. We’ve a young core of a team here, we’re really going after young lads and there is a good mix between youth and experience and it seems to be working well and we’re just trying to keep improving.”

Next up is London and Mark is expecting a typically tough battle: “You know what you’re going to get with London every time, it is going to be a hard game, it is going to be aggressive, it is going to be physical - it is a challenge we’ve set ourselves, to be ready and go for it. 

“We know London, we saw them in the FBD and they looked good. We’ve had a good few battles with them over the last few years, it is always going to be a tough game but we’re going to see what we can do and where we can go.”

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