Win over Leitrim Gaels a step in the right direction for Pearce and Aughawillan

Defying the odds seems to come naturally to Aughawillan and while the majority of us were stunned by their 2-10 to 0-12 Connacht Gold SFC victory over Leitrim Gaels last Saturday, Pearce Dolan felt that the result gets the former county kingpins back to where they should be.

Asked if the victory almost guarantees them a quarter-final spot, Pearce simply said “That was the main aim - we wanted to get to a quarter final. We probably dipped the last few years below where we think we are and where I think we should be. Today was a good step, we’ve trained well all year and we kind of have everyone back, going in the right direction.”

Yet the County player was the first to admit his delight at the Willies downing the Gaels: “Absolutely delighted, we knew Leitrim village were going to be very, very strong. They nearly beat Ballinamore, probably should have according to some people - I wasn’t at the game but I heard they were very strong.

“They had a good win against Manorhamilton so we knew that they’d be coming out and be very well set up and we knew it would be hard to get the win and thank God we did.  Hopefully we can get Tom back, get Fergal back - Rory is just back from doing the cruciate last year so great to get minutes back in them and hopefully we can drive it on next week.”

That notion of each and every player stepping up when needed is huge as Aughawillan started without the two McTagues and Tom Plunkett, enough to stall any challenge but in Aughawillan, it doesn’t seem to matter: “I don’t know what to say - anyone is already ready to get a call up. 

ST MARY'S V LEITRIM GAELS CLASH HIGHLIGHT OF FINAL ROUND OF CONNACHT GOLD LEITRIM SFC GROUP GAMES

“We’ve had basically the same team for I don’t know how long, we’ve had a few lads step up here and there but everybody is tried and tested over the last number of years so if somebody is injured, you’ve no problem with somebody stepping in and stepping up and that is what happened today.”

Keeping going isn’t easy but even after a long inter-county season, both Pearce and Mark Plunkett dominated but for Pearce, tiredness doesn’t seem to come into it: “Myself, I was probably chomping at the bit to come back, I had an up and down season in terms of injuries and I missed the last two games so I had a long rest, a good month off, an enforced rest but it was a rest all the same, chomping at the bit to get back and I can feel myself coming back.

“Same as Mark, sure Mark has been driving on, he had a little bit of a layoff at the start and he came really strong there and you can see it there how well he played.”

As for plans for the mid-competition break, Pearce said “Two weeks off, we’ll have a bit of craic this evening, we’ve been quite strict with ourselves for the last while, we’ll have a bit of craic and drive it on again for two weeks.”