Leitrim boss Moran sickened by late Carlow goal but sees signs of promise

Andy Moran summed up the feelings of all Leitrim folk in Netwatch Cullen Park last Sunday when he described Carlow’s dramatic injury time victory over Leitrim in the Allianz NFL Division 4 clash as “a sickener” but also talked of signs of promise.

Asked to sum up what he witnessed in the final moments of Sunday’s 2-14 to 1-16 loss, Moran simply said “You couldn’t believe that to be honest with you. It is extremely disappointing, we did so much to win the game, we probably won the game two or three times after going 1-1 down. 

“We did brilliant to get back into it and then to let it slip like that, the boys will be very disappointed with that, we’d all be disappointed with that. That’s a sickener.”

Closing out games and playing with a calm head under pressure will surely be a topic for discussion when the team look back on Sunday’s game according to Moran: “It is what we’re trying to take out of it. We can play that up and down football, we needed someone to just grab the ball and hold onto it.

“Obviously you go with Shane Quinn and you go with Donal Wrynn in the first 50 minutes but you’d love to have them there in the last 20 to just grab and hold the ball, just settle the game for us. But we didn’t have it and a bit of energy and madness got us back into the game but it probably lost us the game in the end.

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“Certain teams have certain danger men - young Foley does a great job on Hulton, Hulton then moves inside and he scores one into the top corner to win the game which was a great goal for them but very disappointing for us. 

“But it is the nature of the division, the great thing about it is we go again against Longford, which is a bit of a local derby and we see how it goes.”

Moran also bemoaned the black card doled out to Adam Reynolds and the second yellow to Conor Reynolds: “Absolutely killed us. I think Conor got done if I’m being honest with you. Somebody knew he was on a yellow and got him down on the ground, they both got yellows - a soft one from the refs in general, not the ref here, I’m not complaining about him, that’s usually what happens if you get caught.

“Adam’s one was just that the pass was released out of his hands and he gets caught and that’s it. It is a killer, it does cost you. Adam just comes back on the field and Conor gets sent off and with six minutes of injury time, all of a sudden, you’re playing 16 minutes without a man.”

Leitrim just failed to reach the magical 20 point target and their manager agreed it is a target they need to meet: “Twenty points is the key at the moment in modern day football, if you get to 20 points, you’re going to be very hard beaten. We got to 19, they had 2-14 at the end - everyone needs to get to it and when you get to it, you are very hard to beat. Unfortunately that last strike has cost us two valuable points.”

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Picking themselves up won’t be easy but Moran saw signs of promise despite the defeat: “The boys aren’t silly, the boys know they played some very good football there. You can see the connections coming between Ryan and Darragh. Obviously we had Keith last year and a lot went through him, the boys are building a new kind of forward line and you see on days like today, it showed promise. Barry showed promise in the middle of the field but those are two points we should have taken and unfortunately we left them behind us.”