Leitrim left themselves too much to do against Longford says Moran

A good start is half the battle so the saying goes but a bad start can undo a team’s hopes as Andy Moran reflected on a demoralising 1-16 to 0-13 loss to neighbours Longford on Sunday in the Allianz NFL Division 4 clash in Glennon Brothers Pearse Park.

What made the defeat harder to digest was the belief that Wexford’s win over Carlow on Saturday had opened the door for Leitrim according to Moran: “I suppose every team in the division got a lifeline last night by Wexford beating Carlow but that’s not the result or the performance we were looking for. Last week was disappointing but from a long way out, we had that game lost.”

A poor opening 20 minutes left Leitrim with too big of a hole to climb out according to their manager with Ryan O’Rourke’s black card contributing to the Leitrim malaise: “You could see the difference when Ryan came back on the field - 15 against 15, you could push kickouts, you can stick to your game plan.

“Then, all of a sudden, it goes the opposite way - Ryan gets sent off and you can’t press the kickouts. We struggled a bit when he was off, the goal was a killer at that time but those first 15 minutes were just off, I wouldn’t put it down completely to Ryan’s black card, we were just off. 

“When we got playing, you can see what we can do but when you leave yourself with so much to do, it is just hard and by the time they got their black card, when Kiernan got carded, I supposed we were already juiced at that stage and didn’t have the energy to push on.”

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Moran was most disappointed by Leitrim’s lack of energy and drive in that crucial opening period: “Today we had everyone available bar Cillian McGloin who had a little surgery during the week, Jamie wasn’t there but we had a strong unit today, very, very disappointed with that start, very disappointed, lacklustre - we have to take some responsibility for it.

“You can’t start a League game which is basically a championship game like that and expect to get away with it. There was an eight point deficit at one stage and it was too big of a hill to climb.”

In fairness, Leitrim made a good effort to climb that hill, reducing the gap back to two points early in the second half but the toll it took, combined with Jack Gilheaney’s dismissal left Leitrim in energy deficit: “It is hard to know, it takes so much energy to claw back seven points and the way we clawed it back, we clawed it back with points - there was no goal or soft goal in there, we clawed it back with points and that took an awful lot of energy. 

“By the time they got the black card, our energy seemed to dip. Jack Gilheaney was the lifeblood of the team around the field and when he went - listen the boys fought to the end, I think we got the last point or two which is great to see but we’d be very disappointed with our overall performance but we need to lift it now.”

For all that, promotion is still within Leitrim’s grasp, a point Moran had driven home to his players in the huddle after the game: “The positive, and I said it to the lads, there is two games left and everyone can finish on ten and we just need to make sure our scoring difference is quite decent.

“You couldn’t write it - we left Pairc Sean two weeks ago and we think we’re on a high, what happened to us last week. We got a lifeline last night and the cushion was that if we lost today, everyone is on six points and you’ve to look for scoring difference. Tipp drew with Waterford today which probably takes them out of it if I’m being honest and we have Laois and Tipp. 

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“We had Laois last year in the second last round of the League and did well against them but our performance levels have to go up, our accuracy has to go up, everything that we need to do has to go up and today was just disappointing, we didn’t perform. It is very doable bar Carlow have London left but everybody plays each other so it is an extraordinary way that it finishes up. 

“You expect them to take points, you’d expect Wexford to get to ten and we said that the day we were in Pairc Sean, you’d still expect them to get to ten, we were just hoping that we’d be on 12. We’ve left it in the lap of the Gods, we need to go and concentrate on ourselves, win our two games and push on.”