Pride mingles with disappointment for Leitrim debutant Jack Flynn

Pride at making his Leitrim debut alongside his brother Aidan was tempered for Jack Flynn by the  disappointment of suffering a heavy defeat at the hands of Sligo last Sunday in Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada.

Making his very first appearance for the Leitrim Senior team, Jack spoke to the Observer with all the assurance of a veteran as he felt that things just didn’t go right on the day for Leitrim. Nevertheless, making his debut was a proud moment: “It is a moment you look forward to, I’ve had a lot of frustration this year with injuries and stuff like that so there was that sense of pride being out on the field with the brother.

"I suppose it is something I’ve always looked forward to but not really what you’re focussing on at the moment. Maybe I’ll look back on it in a few years or in a few months or whatever but at the moment, we’re just disappointed. The game didn’t go right for us, a lot of turnovers.”

The Leitrim Gaels clubman was one of several players to make their debuts for Leitrim on Sunday with subs Kieran Clancy of Melvin Gaels also making his first Senior appearance for the Green & Gold.

Asked if the loss of Donal Casey and Mark Plunkett on top of the absence of Barry McNulty and Jack Foley may have played on the minds of the Leitrim squad, the young Leitrim Gaels clubman didn’t think so: “I think we were confident, we feel like we have a good squad, even the lads who came in added a lot to it, even though we were down those lads. 

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“I don’t think there was a thing that people were like ‘damn, we down all these lads’ but a lot of stuff just didn’t go right for us.”

Admittedly the tough schedule of four games over the past four weekends did catch up with the Green & Gold: “It is tough going, a lot of the lads have played really intense games week on week for the last four weeks and they’ve all felt pretty much must win. It is hard to constantly be going at 100%, this is your final every week and you have to push yourself - it is difficult to do that every single week, week on week.”

For now, the focus is to have a good crack at the Tailteann Cup: “Regroup now, get back training and that it’s next game, focus on the Tailteann Cup. You always feel like you’ve a great opportunity to win a few games, go deep in that and hopefully now, regroup and have a go at that.”