Leitrim don't have the luxury of feeling sorry for themselves says manager

Disappointed though he undoubtedly was, manager Jonny Garrity stressed that Leitrim do not have the luxury of feeling sorry for themselves after a first defeat in this year’s Lidl LGFA Division 4 campaign last Sunday at the hands of Fermanagh.

Speaking after the 1-9 to 0-9 defeat, Garrity said “We don't have the luxury of feeling sorry for ourselves. We have to get back on the horse – sort to speak. Tomorrow is Monday and it is game week again. We are delighted that it is for it gives the chance to put the thing right. 

“No better team to do it against than Limerick, who are another very talented group. It is going to be a very tough one but that's exactly the game we want,” said the Leitrim boss as he immediately set his team’s sights on Limerick who are visiting Ballinamore next Sunday.

Reflecting on the game, Garrity felt that his team’s inability to convert good goal chances proved crucial in a tight game: “Unfortunately it was one of those days when goals didn't go in for us. We go forward now and try and learn the lessons that we have been presented with today.

“I think in the first half there were a number of Leitrim goal chances and had any one of them gone in it would have changed the complexion of the game. As it was, it was Fermanagh that got their noses in front with the goal and thereafter they had something to hold onto, and proved very difficult to break down.

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“But had they been chasing, it could have been completely different. That's the way it went. You have to give credit to the opposition on this occasion and we will live to fight another day, and we are very determined to go and learn the lessons that we need to, and hope we will.”

Eimear Smyth’s clinical finish proved the difference but the Leitrim manager was relatively pleased with how his team restricted the Fermanagh attack: “We left ourselves a little bit exposed and Eimear punished us on that occasion, and that's what will happen against quality players. To be fair, apart maybe from the start of the second half we didn't give them the sniff of another goal.”

And the former Fermanagh manager believes that Leitrim could meet the Erne women further down the line in the knockout stages: “It was a good game of football between two good sides at this level. I think we couldn't rule out these two teams meeting again at some point at the knockout stages of this league.

“We certainly need to keep pressing on to finish in one of the top four positions that will give us a semi-final game.”

Leah Fox, who was last week named as winner of The Croke Park LGFA Player of the Month award for January, admitted that missed chances cost Leitrim: “We missed goal chances that usually would have gone in on another day, myself included. 

“We have loads of work to do this week. It is really going to be a big game for us.”