Leitrim duo Tom Prior and Radek Oberwan wanted more from Kildare clash

Looking at the Leitrim players standing chatting with family and supporters in Glennon Brothers Pearse, you got the sense that they didn’t really know what to feel after the 1-16 to 0-12 loss to Kildare in the Tailteann Cup.

Tom Prior and Radek Oberwan were a bit conflicted when they chatted with the Observer after the game, feeling pride in the performance and disappointment that they couldn’t get closer to the Lilywhites.

“It is a great experience to get to play against a team like Kildare,” said Tom, “We’re in Division 3 with them next year and it shows that we belong at that level. There are great learnings to take from today and we will just go back to them this week and focus on next weekend.”

For Radek Oberwan, the feeling was one of disappointment: “We’re obviously disappointed but we were expecting ourselves to win the game, we weren’t doubting ourselves at all. We went out there and did our best.”

For Radek (inset), it was a special day as his brother Arek made his Senior debut while he himself is determined to nail down a starting spot: “I tried to take my chance, do my best and hopefully I can keep the spot now in the future.

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“It was good to have the brother alongside me, two Allen Gaels boys representing the club as well, a proud day for us!”

Tom Prior is also embracing a different challenge as he morphs into a modern day prototype half-forward, half-back role: “Interchangeable is probably the word, you’re not just stuck to that position, you have freedom to move around with the lads there too. It is nice, open spaces on a pitch like that, it is easy to play nice football.”

Tom talked more of what the team can achieve rather than the two points he landed in the first half: “It was nice to get on the scoresheet but we played some nice football. Obviously there are parts we have to work on but I thought when we went at Kildare, we were able to carve them open and get our scores. Part of that we are really happy with but obviously there are learnings too.”

Tom  felt Leitrim rose to the challenge: “Any day you go out, you’re going to be missing lads. It is a long year, it takes its toll on bodies, there are boys carrying knocks there that played through them. 

“Obviously we are missing a couple of them but I’m sure Kildare are the same. Every team at the minute is missing a few but hopefully get a couple of boys back for next week and we’ll fly into it.”