We believe in what Stevie's doing says Leitrim's Eanna McNamara

It may be his first year with the Leitrim Senior team but Eanna McNamara, sitting his Leaving Cert in a matter of weeks, spoke with the assurance of a veteran following last Sunday’s heartbreaking Tailteann Cup loss to Sligo, stressing that the Green & Gold players have full confidence in what Steven Poacher is trying to achieve!

Asked how he felt following the 2-19 to 1-18 loss in Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada, the young Aughavas player simply said “It is frustrating - we had two great goal chances there towards the end but it is all a building process.

“We believe in what Stevie's doing with us and as you've seen, that's a great performance against Mayo and now we backed it up there against Sligo. We're believing in the process and we'll take the positives out of it.”

Sligo’s experience probably carried the day for the Yeatsmen and Eanna agreed that the game turned on a couple of small incidents, stressing that Leitrim will take valuable lessons from the loss: “I'd say that. Sligo knew how to close out the game in the second half.

“I think we had a chance to go 10-up and then they went down and got a two-pointer. Those little things where we could kill off a game. But that will come with time. We're a young team and I guarantee in another few years we'll learn how to do that.”

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Many might regard Eanna’s schedule over the past two weeks as tough with two Tailteann Cup games and an All-Ireland U20 B semi-final but you sense that the Aughavas youngster is relishing playing games: “I know it is a lot of games but it's enjoyable. I'm enjoying it. Stevie, in fairness, he's a great manager. 

“He can't do enough for us. In fairness, we're a tight-knit group. Everyone's tight-knit and everyone gets along well, which makes it enjoyable. It's more than football then to be honest with you, I suppose we're thinking about further down the line. Most of us are very young lads and we've years and years ahead of us.

“We have to go through games like this today to be able to, in four or five years' time, win something bigger and get a bigger product out at the end of it. It might be tough. It's all worth it down the line, hopefully.”

It sounds as if Eanna is a big fan of Poacher’s set-up and what Leitrim are trying to achieve in the coming years: “Well, that's the plan. Stevie told us that this is not a one-year process, he’s not just coming in to win something, he wants to build year on year. We just have to stick to the process now. 

“You see the Minors yesterday, a great win. There's positives coming. We go out against Tipperary and give that a lash. Hopefully beat them and beat them well. We put ourselves in a position today. I know we didn't win the game but we left ourselves hope for two weeks' time.”