Poacher full of pride as Leitrim set sights on Tailteann Cup

Steven Poacher was quickly setting Leitrim’s sights on a strong run in the Tailteann Cup in the minutes following Saturday’s Connacht SFC Semi-Final defeat at the hands of Mayo, reiterating the immense pride had in the performance of the Green & Gold footballers in Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada.

When the Observer asked about the pride he must have felt watching his troops battle to the last second against Division 1 League finalists Mayo, Steven simply said “You took the words right out of my mouth, I think the word pride is what I told them in the huddle after the match. 

“I'm just immensely proud of them. I'm proud to wear the Leitrim crest on my chest today. It's been a difficult few months as we all know and for them to produce that performance today is nothing short of remarkable and it's testament to them. They followed a game plan to the letter of the law there today. Their tenacity, their work rate, their energy was absolutely outstanding, I couldn't fault them -  now we just have to add a bit of consistency.”

Given the noise that surrounded Leitrim, it must have been tempting for the Leitrim manager to shout vindication after all the travails of the League campaign but Poacher was having none of that! “From my perspective, I've seen it all and heard it all and nothing really phases me and I don't say that lightly. 

“What you tend to find is you get a lot of empty noise, a lot of empty vessels, a lot of people that aren't in the trenches, they're not working hard, they're not here with these young lads, they're not seeing what's going on and it's just sound-bites, it really doesn't mean anything to me, it doesn't really mean anything to the boys. 

NO CLOUDS LINGERING FOR MAN OF THE MATCH BARRY MCNULTY

“We're fully focused on what we want to do and what we want to do is push Leitrim football forward as best we possibly can.” When the Observer remarked that Leitrim didn’t look like  a team at war with itself, Steven said “Absolutely not and there's a great spirit there today and it's fantastic to see.”

The Leitrim manager gave some insight into the tactics that frustrated Mayo so effectively last Saturday: “We looked at Mayo, we studied Mayo. I went to Castlebar a few weeks ago and watched them against Sligo and I'm glad I made the trip because you see things at the game that you don't see on TV and video.

“You can see very clearly that their kickouts are a massive, massive part of their scoring energy. We took that away in the first half. I thought our zonal press on Colm Reape's kickouts was absolutely outstanding from open play. We stole a couple and could have punished them.

“Their offensive ploys where they actually liked to use the wall ball inside but they're one of the lowest scoring teams in Division 1 with two point efforts so we knew if we sat with a wee bit of a deeper block and we get in round and collapse that arc a bit more and get in round those wall ball efforts that we could get turnovers and we did. 

“I thought we did really well in our own kick-outs but again that's having Barry and Cillian back in there and when you're winning that primary possession it gives you a chance then to hurt teams. I'm just so proud of them, they executed the plan to the letter of the law.”

Mention of Barry McNulty was inevitable after a man of the match display and Poacher sung the Glencar Manorhamilton man’s praise: “Barry is a wonderful, wonderful footballer but he's a fantastic individual as well. He's a great character, he's a great fella and I’ve been talking to his father and they're immensely proud of him and rightly so. 

“He is the sort of guy and the sort of personality that we want to drive Leitrim football forward in the future along with our younger players coming through.”

Getting McNulty back along with Cillian McGloin and Donal Casey made a huge difference: “People are talking about the league and we played the league without Barry McNulty, without Cillian McGloin, without Donal Casey and without these lads, it makes such an absolutely massive difference.”

Poacher highlighted the challenges still facing Leitrim: “We filled the 26 today but if you were filling the 26 with two or three lads it probably wouldn't have been fit to come onto the field but we wanted to have 26 in the programme today. Listen, we trained with 11 players 10 days ago, you know, and for them to produce a performance like that is just remarkable.

MAYO BOSS MCSTAY PRAISES LEITRIM FIGHT BUT SHIFTS FOCUS TO CONNACHT FINAL

“Just to get the bodies back in the field, assemble the troops again this week and let them enjoy their Easter. It's important that they enjoy that tonight, it was a really, really tough physical encounter there. The Hooter adds another eight, nine minutes on to the game, it's the first time we've played with the Hooter this year so lads were exposed to a pretty heavy load there today, so we'll give them to Wednesday and see what we have.

“I know the 20s have a Shield final to play, we'll respect that, as we have done. After March 2, they had an unopposed run in the Connacht Championship so, we're hoping that we'll have more bodies back in the field and get a real good run at the Tailteann then.”