No preferences for Andy and Leitrim ahead of Tailteann Cup preliminary round draw

Andy Moran has said he has no preference who his Leitrim team will take on in next weekend’s Tailteann Cup preliminary quarter-finals ahead of today’s draw which takes place on RTE One’s Sunday Sport today (Sunday) at 5.40 pm.

Leitrim can face either New York, London, Tipperary or Wicklow with the game believed to be fixed for Glennon Brothers Pearse Park once more, the third game in a row Moran’s men will play in the Longford venue but ahead of the game, Moran says he has no preferences as to who his team will face.

Speaking after the 1-16 to 0-12 loss to Kildare, Moran was asked if he had any preferences with the prospect of facing a New York team who inflicted a historic defeat on Leitrim last year, fresh in the mind: “Do we have any preferences, no we don’t. You can look at it any way - we’ve had great battles with London, we’ve had huge battles with Tipp.

“Tipperary with all their forwards back are very dangerous and we played them in a challenge a few weeks ago, very dangerous opponents, shouldn’t be where they are. Wicklow, that was probably the game that cost us last year in winning promotion so there are huge games there.

“We will probably have them here next week, what an exciting time. We’ll go away, assess this game as quickly as we can, give all the knowledge we can to the boys and set up for next week as best we can.”

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The idea of reaching Croke Park for the second time this year is a driving force for Leitrim with the Tailteann Cup semi-finals due to be held at GAA headquarters: “That’s a huge target - at the outset, I’ve said I think one Division 4 team from 2024 will get there. If we keep fighting and playing and running the way we ran there, I think we have a huge chance.

“But there is an awful lot of work there. Oisin McConville’s Wicklow played in Division 3 this year, you can see the differences, just there in that last five, ten minutes, Kildare brought on subs that made a huge difference, we just didn’t have the energy and Wicklow should have probably beaten Kildare so that’s a huge task. 

“New York were good against Mayo, London were excellent against Offaly two weeks ago and did very well against Down so let's just see where we go.”