Mayo performance a starting point for Leitrim says captain Mark Diffley

Saturday’s performance against Mayo should be the starting point for Leitrim footballers going forward as Senior team captain Mark Diffley believes the Green & Gold have set a standard for themselves that they must meet in the future.

Speaking after Saturday’s 0-20 to 0-13 Connacht SFC Semi-Final loss in Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada, Mark was not exactly bullish about Leitrim’s future prospects but neither was he shying away from setting standards for the county footballers to meet in the future!

“As a starting point for us, that's a performance we're proud of,” Mark told the Observer immediately after Saturday’s absorbing contest, adding “That's what we want - we set down a level there and that's the level of intensity we want and you're going to have to improve on that. 

“That's a basic standard of effort and intensity that we want to bring. You see halftime with the roar from the crowd, you're getting the energy, it's coming back onto the players. That's what we want. There's nice support here today. We want that throughout the Tailteann Cup, the lads really respond to that.”

For Mark, Saturday was a chance to show what Leitrim footballers can really do after a traumatic League campaign that saw Leitrim relegated and fail to fulfill the fixture against Fermanagh: “We knew the way the league went. We wanted to earn a bit of pride back. Our first game at new Pairc Sean here, we wanted to lay down a marker. 

CHECK OUT WILLIE DONNELLAN'S GALLERY OF FAN PHOTOS FROM LEITRIM V MAYO

“We wanted to give supporters here something to actually cheer on that they didn't get to see in the league. They saw it in little bits and spurts, maybe the Offaly game but we want to consistently be at that level. We showed what we can do there.”

The return of Barry McNulty, Donal Casey and Cillian McGloin was a massive boost to Leitrim’s hopes, even if all three were well short of ideal match fitness: “It was probably one of the strongest teams we had out during the year, Donal Casey, Cillian McGloin first time back in 12, 14 months so it was just lads back in.

“We knew the quality was there, just trying to get boys back to the pitch was another issue. Cillian McGloin has been out for 14 months and it's been a long road for him and Donal Casey is something similar. The last time Donal played was in the league final last year so to get them back and see what they can do. 

“Donal Casey went from not playing for 12 months to man-marking Ryan O’Donoghue, one of the top forwards in the game and he showed he's well able to hold his own there.”

Jokingly saying “I don’t want to blow up his head too much”, the Leitrim captain was full of praise for Man of the match Barry McNulty: “Look, he's a special talent but there is a couple there, like Tom Prior, Darren Cox, there's a lot of young lads there that are really, really, really, really talented so it is just about giving them a chance. 

“Barry, between Sigerson and commitments and all that, picked up a hamstring injury. That was very, very hard to come back from and he missed nearly the entire league.”

Analysing the game, Mark felt that Leitrim had a chance to win the game before the game got away from them: “We probably let the game slip that 10 minutes in the second half a little bit. I think we had two goal chances there when Mayo were kind of still ropey enough and we just ended up getting stretched a bit, Mayo getting a couple of points towards the end of the game there.”

But for all that and after all the injuries that have blighted Leitrim’s season so far, Mark looks forward with hope: “It is hard at times with the time commitments and effort everyone has to put in and it is a bit demoralising sometimes training with 11, 12 players. Between the amount of lads that left last year and injuries, it was just a knock-on effect.

“But we saw that the last couple of weeks, our numbers started to go back up again a little bit and getting lads back to the pitch, you can just see what we’re capable of when everyone is there. And that's what we're looking forward to over the next couple of weeks.”