Melvin Gaels' Kieran Clancy thrilled to make his first Leitrim start

Andy Moran threw a bit of a surprise on Sunday when he handed Melvin Gaels’ Kieran Clancy his Leitrim start against Longford in the Tailteann Cup and the young Kinlough man was thrilled by the experience, writes John Connolly.

“It was a great experience and now we hope to drive on,” Kieran told the Observer, adding “It is tough to get into the starting 15, all the boys are pushing but I just put my head down, train as hard as I can and I’m glad I got the start and now it is about pushing on for the next games.”

Kieran follows in the footsteps of a strong Melvin Gaels tradition with the county senior side, players like Colin Regan, the Foleys, Phelans, Brennans, O’Malleys and McGowans and he is determined to follow in their footsteps: “That’s the thing, it is a tough journey driving up to training and it is tough in being consistent but we just keep at it now.”

Looking at the game, Kieran felt Leitrim’s victory was well deserved: “It was a great win to get that win, we were pure focused. The last time we played them, we lost by six points but we made sure to change up our game plan to make sure that didn’t happen today and that is what we did. 

“It was a well deserved win, that is what I thought in my opinion. I had trust in the boys to get the job done, we just pushed through in the end, that was all we were aiming for - we weren’t aiming to absolutely obliterate them, we were just aiming to win and that is what we did.”

Next up is Kildare and Kieran is setting his sights on facing the Lilywhites: “Our whole focus now is Kildare and that’s it. We just got to get set and looking forward to the next game.”