Defeat a tough pill to swallow but Leitrim's Mark Diffley sees hope for the future

If you ever feel a bit low about the County’s football fortunes, maybe you should chat with Mark Diffley because the Leitrim captain, even with the disappointment of exiting the Tailteann Cup, speaks with a deep conviction of the positive path Leitrim are on.

The St Mary’s Kiltoghert clubman felt Leitrim didn't perform on Saturday but is cognisant of where they’ve come from: “It is obviously a tough pill to swallow today for the lads and myself personally, that’s not what we expect of ourselves on any given day. 

“Disappointing for the supporters who have given us great support all year but if you told us at the start of the year, from where we came from, we know we have made progress this year. We came from last year where we hadn’t won a Tailteann Cup game and lost to New York.

“They were two blips we weren’t happy with at all but we knew it was going the right way - look at the progress this year, the amount of young lads who have come in and made their debuts this year, it has made a huge difference, huge additions.”

Mark’s disappointment was exacerbated  when Wicklow’s first goal came off the back of his legs but he didn’t seek to hide behind a hard luck story, opting for cold hard truth: “Unfortunately it came off me, it is tough. Probably two goals for Wicklow that were a bit fortunate, from our own mistakes in the build-up but if we’re being honest, we probably didn’t deserve to be up three points at halftime.

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"We weren’t playing well enough and we definitely didn’t come out and play well enough in the second half, that’s just the truth of it!”

Yet Mark believes Leitrim showed enough this year to suggest they can compete in Division 3 next year: “We showed last week against Kildare that we belong at that level - we have the conditioning, we have the size, we have the power to do it. I know from our tests in the gym, our numbers have gone up and up and we’re at that level. 

“Obviously today wasn’t our day and it kills us at the minute but when we come in and debrief and we’re doing our gym programmes, that will be time to look back and realise that it has been an impressive year. We have got promotion, we gave the supporters some great days, beating Laois  in Portlaoise, getting to Croke Park. 

“The last day against Kildare was a nail biter, we beat Longford here who we have beaten here in 30 years so there has been progress this year. Consistency is the thing we’re after, we haven’t fully got that yet and today proves it but we’re getting better each time. We’re going to get to that level as soon as we can.”

Mark believes the Leitrim players will use that  to drive them on: “Players know it, the management know it and it is obviously disappointing for us and the supporters, we never wanted to give a show like that. But it is something that will stay with us, we’ll hold onto it and that will be pushing us over pre-season.”