New found strength in depth has boosted St Mary's confidence

St Mary’s Kiltoghert took a giant step towards qualifying for the Gotham Dry Wall LGFA SFC semi-finals on Sunday when they defeated St Brigid’s and captain Lorraine Butler believes it is down to a new found confidence thanks to the club’s emerging strength in depth.

Speaking after the Carrick women defeated St Brigid’s 2-18 to 0-2, Lorraine agreed that the influx of youngsters like Zara Cronin, Elodie Maye, Eibhlin Guckian and Lucie Maye has made a huge different: “After the Minors winning, that has given them a huge boost of confidence and we definitely have depth on the bench. 

“We have any number of girls who can come on, everyone fighting for their place so that creates healthy competition,” said the St Mary’s captain who also stressed that the return of Jasmine Maye and Aisling Leahy has been a big boost to the team, “Having Jaz back who is very strong and Aisling Leahy was away for the Summer too so we’re kinda peaking at the right time so we’re feeling confident.”

Looking at Sunday’s game against a St Brigid’s side who started the day on the same number of points as Mary’s, Lorraine felt that once the home side found their range, they were comfortable: “We’re not ruthless enough on goal and that is something we need to work on. Once we got the goal, points started to go after that.

“Very pleased with our fitness levels and our physicality has definitely improved year on year so I think that the difference this year, we’re kind of making our mark on Senior football.”

CIVIC RECEPTION PLANNED IN HONOUR OF LEITRIM LADIES ALL-IRELAND WIN

As for the immediate future in this year’s championship, Lorraine believes that St Mary’s are just hitting their best form at just the right moment as they sit third in the table on six points with games against Ballinamore Sean O'Heslins and Kiltubrid to come. One more point would guarantee them a place in the semi-finals.

 “We’re in the mix - we believed we would be in the top four, we underperformed last year, I think it was just lacking confidence. We just seemed to have clicked and found the confidence. I know we had most of the year without our county girls which was hard to click. 

“I feel now we’ve reached our peak and it has come together for us at the right time. Ballinamore next, Kiltubrid the final game - if you look at our team and the names on our team, we’re not afraid of anyone anymore and that’s good.

“We’ve found our confidence now so we’re just looking at ourselves, concentrating on ourselves and I feel like we’re in a good position now, that we could possibly win.”