Leitrim's finishing left Garrity worried as manager sees plenty to work on after dramatic Wexford victory

Off-colour finishing threatened to spoil Jonny Garrity’s day last Sunday in Parnell Park in the TG4 LGFA All-Ireland Intermediate Semi-Final but Leitrim got the job done as they booked their place in the final in Croke Park against the Leitrim manager’s native Tyrone!

Leitrim’s 3-8 to 2-10 victory was a roller coaster of emotion and the Leitrim boss admitted that the nerves were getting to him late on as Wexford’s Aoife Cullen stood over a free to send the game to injury time: “I was extremely worried and I would have been a lot happier had we seen out a comfortable victory.

“But it seems that it goes down to the wire more often than not with the girls but I am over the moon, delighted, extremely proud of the girls and looking forward to this day in three weeks time.”

On a day when Leitrim did so much right, the failure to drive home their superiority on the scoreboard almost came home to haunt them and Garrity admits there is plenty of work for his team to do ahead of the Final: “I think our game management, our control of our attacks, our ability to see them out and finish attacks, leave the ball dead and some of the finishing for points was well below the standards that we have set recently.

“There is work to do there but look, there were other parts of our game that probably reached new heights.”

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The defensive solidity and ability to turnover Wexford attacks was key on the day according to the Green & Gold manager: “The defence was absolute brilliant, the way we had set up, the composure, the technique shown in the tackle, the amount of turnovers - we sickened Wexford today, turning them over and over.

“While we have a slight worry about how we saw the game out, we still saw the game out and that’s the important thing.”

With a place in the All-Ireland Final in Croke Park within touching distance in those closing minutes, did nerves creep into the performance: “Probably a bit of that and probably a bit of mental and physical fatigue crept in, the girls absolutely emptied it and I don’t think there was much left in the tank from any players. 

“Perhaps that was another contributing factor but we probably had the ability to play a little bit smarter at times but when it comes down to heart and fight, the girls were just not found wanting and haven’t been and won’t be!”

Tyrone qualified for the Final after a 2-11 to 1-11 victory over Down on Sunday and for Jonny, it means coming face to face with his native county, a situation that the Leitrim manager won’t exactly relish but won’t shy away from either!

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“It mightn’t have been my first choice of team to face but that much is out of our control. We’ll take anybody, we’re in an All-Ireland Final - we’re absolutely delighted to face Tyrone or anybody else. It is what it is and now we’re looking forward to Croke Park.”