Leitrim Ladies bid to finally escape Lidl NFL Division 4

Leitrim Ladies are one win away from ending their seven-year stint in the Lidl LGFA Division 4 as they face undefeated Antrim in the semi-final in Kingscourt next Sunday at 2pm.

The All-Ireland intermediate champions find themselves in the peculiar position of battling to escape the bottom tier of league football in the country while also preparing to contest the senior championship later in the season.

“We're a senior team on merit but we're also a Division 4 team on merit, so we need to change that,” says manager Jonny Garrity who has led the green and gold close to promotion a number of times since taking the helm in 2023, “Until we get the job done, get over the line, and secure promotion, then we are a Division 4 team.”

Garrity, a man who is always on message, stresses that Sunday’s clash with the Saffrons is ultimately a stand-alone, one off game where the result is what is important: “It’s been a battle over the course of the last number of years, even before my time as manager. Ultimately, this isn’t about previous years or future years; this is a one-off match, and we hope to produce something that will be good enough to get the result we’re after.”

Two teams will make the jump to Division Three football this year so a win in the semi-final this weekend will be enough for Leitrim to gain promotion back to Division 3 and this is a game that Leitrim has been building towards throughout a difficult and, at times, disappointing league campaign.

PLENTY FOR LEITRIM TO LEARN FROM IN ANTRIM DEFEAT SAYS GARRITY

“Ultimately, what you really want after the seven matches is qualification for the semi-final, and we’ve done that,” says Garrity. “We know that we’re not playing our best but the important thing is that we’re in the semi-final, and we know there’s a big performance in us.”

The team finished the campaign with three losses in the league, including a four-point defeat against Antrim but despite the 3-8 to 1-10 reverse in Antrim, Garrity says it is a match from which they will draw some confidence. “It ended up being four points in it but it came down to the wire. That’s probably a good sign for us because we know that we certainly can play better than that.”

The three-week break between their last league game against Longford and the semi-final has been a much-needed rest for the team: “We’re feeling good. It’s been a build-up where we’ve had three weeks, as opposed to a match every weekend, like we had for the majority of the eight weeks that the National League ran. It’s nice to have had a bit of coaching time, and we feel it’s benefited us greatly.”

“It’s been a non-stop eight weeks, and due to that, we’ve just felt that we haven’t really had the time to address some of the parts of our game we really want to improve on.”

Garrity, who has led Leitrim to one Division Four final in the past, knows the importance of these knockout games - both for promotion and to give the team more game time before the Connacht Championship kicks off in April.

“Everybody knows the stakes are high, but we’re not going to go and play differently because it’s a bigger match. We’re going to go and do what we do. Hopefully, on the day, we can do that as well as we possibly can.”

NO CERTAINTIES IN LEITRIM'S CLOSE LEAGUE RIVALRY WITH ANTRIM

The only thing that is certain ahead of next Sunday's Lidl LGFA Division 4 Semi-Final in Kingscourt is that nothing is certain when it comes to meetings between Leitrim and Antrim, writes John Connolly.

Both teams are battling for  promotion to Division 3, Antrim aiming for a quick return after relegation last year while Leitrim seek to return to the Division for the first time since 2018. Since that time, the counties have met six  times in the League with three wins for the Saffrons, two for Leitrim and one draw. One of those Antrim wins came under Jonny Garrity's watch as Antrim turned on the jets in the second half to win the Division 4 Final 1-19 to 2-6 in Parnell Park in 2023.

REPORT: IMPROVING SLIGO INFLICT THIRD LEAGUE DEFEAT ON LEITRIM

Leitrim's heartache in trying to escape the bottom division is well documented - Covid wiped out the 2020 campaign when Hugh Donnelly's side looked poised for promotion and 2021 saw them lose the final to Louth by four points. Offaly ended Leitrim hopes in 2022 after an extra-time epic in Kinnegad. Last year, Leitrim looked fully set to finally win promotion only for Limerick to stun them in the semi final so fair to say that the Ladies team have had a tortuous relationship with Division 4.

What has changed is Leitrim are now All-Ireland Intermediate champions - that gives them a certain cache but it also increases the pressure on the Green & Gold as they are now a team to watch. A costly turnover in players has also seen them struggle to find their best form in this campaign and they have been vulnerable to teams who run the ball at pace.

Yet there has been a feeling that Leitrim have taken a different approach this year, targeting the semi-final specifically as they learnt from the harsh lessons of 2024. What Leitrim need now is to deliver the one strong performance they have been threatening and with the scoring power they have, they are more than capable of that.