Green shoots give Poacher hope as Leitrim inexperience costs against Offaly

Loath to get carried away after a 1-13 to 1-9 loss to Offaly, manager Steven Poacher nevertheless saw enough in Leitrim’s performance last Sunday in Ballinamore to agree that the first green shoots of promise were beginning to show.

After four heavy defeats so far in the campaign, Leitrim pushed the joint Allianz NFL Division 3 table toppers all the way and while Poacher wasn’t inclined to go overboard in his reaction, he nevertheless agreed that it was a much better performance: “I think it's important that we don't patronise the boys either. 

“We're talking about moral victories and things that can be a bit patronising, but certainly we know what's there, we know what's in that room. We've a group of young men who are working so hard for something. I stood with you after the Kildare game and I said this wasn't a three-week thing, that this is where we were in three years. 

“I know that sounds as if you're trying to nearly buy yourself time, but it's not. Training has been brilliant these last few weeks. We didn't really have an inter-county pre-season, as I would call it. It was very disjointed. We came in late, we're gathering a panel together but now you can see little green shoots of progress. 

“We could see it in every game - you might not think that with the results we've had but the one thing they've always done is they've worked hard. That's all we've demanded of them is that intensity, that work, that honesty. I have so much respect for those young lads, so much respect, so much pride. They're a great bunch of lads.”

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Leitrim’s youth and enthusiasm can, however, be a double edged sword as the manager admitted with costly turnovers proving vital as the Green & Gold chased the game with the crowd in Pairc Sheain Ui Eslin urging them on: “Young lads are hearing the crowd, the crowd are up and there was a decent atmosphere there today, which is fantastic.

“I had visions of Ballinamore being a hard place to come to. The first two games it wasn't but today it was and there was a great energy from the crowd to which the young lads responded. But then, that's where your experience comes in. You know, no-one went just to control the game.

“We gutted them for the goal with a real fast counter-attack. We'd been doing a lot of transition work and training a lot of hard running and training, coming off the shoulder. We'd been working on that. The goal was, as I said, it was nearly textbook with what we were doing in training on Friday night.

“We knew we'd get opportunities to get off because of the way Offaly pressed and the way they set up. But then there's times where you need to control the game and you need to take a period of control. Every team does it. It's like Dublin against when they were 10, 12 points down. 

“The hands were up in the air, someone's seizing control. Kilkenny getting the ball. They're trying to bide their time, get a bit of confidence, get a foothold in the game. That's what we needed at times there today. And just that wee lack of experience and control probably cost us.”

The inexperience cost Leitrim against Offaly but the hard won lessons could prove vital in this year’s U20 championship as Poacher highlighted the brilliance of Darren Cox: “Darren took his goal unbelievably well today. He's a maverick, he's a brilliant little footballer. He gives me so much joy, but the wee lad gives me so much pain as well - Darren knows that, but he's a fantastic talent and he's one for the future, obviously. 

“These boys are going to go into the U20 Championship in the next few weeks with the experience of a lifetime. There's not an U20 team in this country that will have a third of their team that have Division 3 experience under their belts and the confidence that those lads will take from that today was absolutely fantastic.”

The Leitrim manager didn’t make a big issue about Offaly’s goal just before halftime with Poacher admitting that his initial reaction was that goal scorer John Furlong was outside the square: “I know that initially I thought he might have been just outside, but they're telling me video evidence suggests that he was inside.

“It's a mishit shot that falls short - I haven't seen it, I can't comment on it but obviously, even from a defensive point of view, you would like to have seen one of our defenders boxing him out a bit better. It's just something that we need to probably get better at because we've had a few of those.”

The only issue the Leitrim boss had about the goal was his feeling that referee Alan Coyne was about to blow for halftime! “I actually thought he'd blown the whistle. I was walking onto the field thinking it was halftime. I thought he'd actually blown the whistle because the whistle went into his mouth when he looked at his watch.”

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However, Poacher also feels that the manner of how the goal was conceded comes down to momentum and belief: “This is the problem though, you don't get the breaks when you're down there. If you're top of the league, you get those breaks. I'm not going to hone in on that, but it is a big moment. 

“If that moment doesn't come, I think we win the game - I really do believe that because I think there was a real level of belief. Training Friday night was outstanding. I had watched Offaly over the last couple of weeks, I thought they were vulnerable. I thought that we could get at them in certain areas. 

“We had a brilliant start and went 5-0 up but we lost a lot of kick-outs in the first half. We worked hard at half-time to try and sort out the kick-out issue and I thought we did in the second half. We got a lot of turnover ball in the second half too as well but I think the big problem in the second half was just the lack of control.

“Hats off to the boys. They came out in the second half and folded. But again, another real strong second half. I thought our turnovers in the second half were huge. I thought our energy, our intent, the way we ran at them, it was brilliant. It was absolutely brilliant, and I'm so proud of them.”