We can't feel sorry for ourselves says Poacher ahead of Sligo clash

Demoralised and battered they may have been but Steven Poacher has issued a rallying cry to his troops ahead of next Sunday’s crunch Tailteann Cup clash with Sligo, insisting that Leitrim cannot afford to feel sorry for themselves after last Saturday’s 25 point loss to Kildare in Newbridge.

Looking at the stunned faces of the Leitrim players on the pitch at Cedral St Conleth’s Park following the 0-36 to 0-11 defeat, one imagines that it will be incredibly difficult to lift the players for next Sunday’s clash with Sligo but the Leitrim manager stresses that they have no choice but to do just that.

“You can't feel sorry for yourself now,” Poacher told the Observer, “It's lick the wounds and get back to business now and during the week. Our problem is probably still where it has been over the last number of weeks, we are down to our bare bones with our squad and we just pick up little knocks, little injuries, it's really really frustrating, it really is. 

“We've had a couple of lads that have come in and they've been great for training but any time training cranks up, we seem to lose a lad or two and it's just that's just the nature of the beast boys.

“You've got such a young group, you've got a group that's so inexperienced from a conditioning point of view and that's what happens and we really really just need to patch everybody up and make sure everyone is available next week again because next week's going to be just as equally as difficult Sligo are a fine side.”

REPORT: KILDARE SWEEP LEITRIM OPTIMISM ASIDE IN RUTHLESS DEMOLITION IN NEWBRIDGE

Kildare had done their homework well and restricted the impact Barry McNulty had on the game with the Leitrim manager feeling that the Glencar Manorhamilton talisman didn’t get the protection he warranted from referee Liam Devaney: “We knew coming up here and I'd said it was going to be a difficult task.

“Kildare are a side full of athleticism, strength, pace, power and they've also probably four or five really really good two point shooters, as you would call them in the modern game. So we knew we were going to have our hands full. Obviously around the middle of the field, we know the threat that Barry McNulty is and the quality of the midfielder he is. 

“Mick O'Grady was sent in to do one job and one job only, to spoil Barry, that's the only reason he played. I thought the first half Barry was pushed four or five times in the back, I thought at times we didn't get the rub of the green with some of those decisions. I thought Liam was hasty with the whistle when it came to the Kildare side of things.

“But look, that's the game, sometimes you get the rub of the green, sometimes you don't and I just felt we couldn't really even just impose any form of physicality on them at all because every glove on them was a free.”

The final scoreline didn’t look likely after Leitrim reduced an early Kildare lead to just two points after 26 minutes but then it all fell apart for the Green & Gold, leaving Poacher ruing some missed chances: “You said it there, 7-5 after 26-27 minutes, I was so delighted with how we'd started considering at that time in the league game in Ballinamore, we were 19-20 points down in the first half and hadn't scored.

The Leitrim team that was defeated by Kildare in the Tailteann Cup on Saturday May 10. (Back, from left) Darren Cox, Tom Hughes, Keith Keegan, David Feeney, Donal Casey, Jack Foley, Conor Quinn, Kieran Clancy (Melvin Gaels), Stephen McPartland, Tom Prior, Ben Guckian, Cillian McGloin. (Front) Joe McGloin, Eanna McNamara, Riordan O’Rourke, Sean Harkin, Mark Diffley, James Rooney, Daire O’Shea, Evan Harkin, Shane Finn, Ryan Bohan Picture: Leitrim GAA

“We knew coming here today that we had to maximise all our chances and that goal chance in the first half, we hit the net, it just gives you such confidence and a couple of times we really really produced some really good counter-attacking stuff against them. 

“We just couldn't get our hands on the ball and we went from 7-5 to all of a sudden 15-5 and you're thinking why did that happen because it wasn't a game that you would have said that there was 8 or 9 points of difference on the basis of play.

The contrast in physical power between the two sides was most evident in the middle of the park where the home side dominated the breaking ball: “The reality of the situation is you know that they're way  down the lane when it comes to physicality, when it comes to conditioning levels in comparison to this young group that we have, it's going to take time for that young group to get to those levels of physicality and conditioning.

“If you look at the games now and even last week Kildare, I think, raced into a lead two weeks ago against Louth. But Louth got a foothold in the middle of the field and all of a sudden I think Louth outscored them something like 1-12 to 0-4 in the next period of time and that's what happened to us today in that six minute spell, that six minute spell we lost seven or eight  kickouts in a row.

“Then when you have a young group and you have that deficit we come out at the start of the second half we create another brilliant goal chance we don't take it, ball played across square, loose hand pass - if it's played to chest, Squidgy (Keith Keegan) buries it, all of a sudden it gives you a lift.

“They go down the field and kick three and that's lights out then, whatever chance we had in that second half, we had a start well and then you see confidence going and they probably play with maybe with within themselves, a little bit of fear whereas against Mayo, when we come out you know we get a couple of early scores and that's the difference. You just need to stay in these games for as long as you can like when you're the underdog.”

HARSH LESSON WILL PAY OFF IF LEITRIM LEARN FROM GALWAY DEFEAT - GARRITY

For now, Poacher’s main aim is to have as many players as possible available for the next two games against Sligo and Tipperary: “We need everybody - you named a lot of players there but we just need everyone and that's it and over the next few weeks we just need to mind ourselves. 

“Training for the next couple of weeks is just going to be literally mind the bodies and just see who can train and who can't train and try and get ourselves organised for next Sunday. We need to have everyone on the field for us to have a real  good chance against Sligo and the same when we play Tipperary. 

“Listen it's another game for Donal, it's another game for Cillian, it's another game for Barry as well, don't forget he's only back you missed the whole of the league so listen there's green shoots there certainly.”