Leitrim don't want moral victories as Poacher pays tribute to his young team

If there is one thing nobody can accuse Steven Poacher of, it is tip-toeing around a difficult subject so it was no surprise to hear a devastated Leitrim manager proclaim that he and his players have no interest in moral victories in the wake of a heartbreaking 2-19 to 1-18 Tailteann Cup loss to Sligo in a sweltering Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada last Sunday.

Poacher’s first words, when asked how he felt following the loss, reflect the mindset in the Leitrim camp, a mindset that belies their status as a team yet to win a competitive encounter in 2025: “I'm devastated. The players are devastated. We didn't come here today for a moral victory, we came here to win the game.

“We haven't beat Sligo in 14 years - I think Mark Diffley said to me that he was 11 years of age the last time Leitrim beat Sligo in Championship football, that would have been etched in the folklore there today if anybody had done that. Yes, it's been a tough year. We haven't won games but the character that those young boys have shown has been absolutely stunning. They have given the Leitrim jersey a massive lift.”

Poacher stressed that despite a run of results that would have sapped the mental fortitude of any team, the Leitrim players have turned in some remarkable displays under the most adverse circumstances: “You've got to remember where these boys have been this year. These boys have been in the darkest of darkest holes. 

“These boys have been 20 points down in league games at halftime but these boys have gone out and dived on a ball, 20 points down against Kildare, still diving for blocks, still putting tackles in. Many a weaker man would have folded and these lads deserve an enormous amount of credit for what they have achieved this year.

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“The two big games here this year in Pairc Sean against Mayo and Slago, those boys have come out of these games with massive credit. But we're not looking for moral victories as I say. We're looking for victories and we're disappointed, we're devastated. But what it does do is it gives us a nice platform to go away now for this week, recover, get back at it next weekend and really look forward to hopefully getting a win against Tipperary.”

Considering the stunned faces of the players in Newbridge after the 25 point loss to Kildare, one would have felt that lifting the players for the Sligo clash would have been an impossible task but no, Poacher stressed the atmosphere in the camp is brilliant despite what has been a traumatic year in terms of results.

“The environment, the atmosphere there is brilliant. I was sitting the other night after training having a bite to eat with them all. We like the lads to sit together and have a bite to eat and you know what, they're a great bunch of lads. There's a good atmosphere, there's a good spirit. We have a great management team. There's a great bit of crack.

“Daniel is a great personality around the place. Jonesy's a great personality, I don't know if Jonesy does any work but he knows everybody's business, he's a great fella to have around. Anthony McGrath is top class. Anthony's been in changing rooms that have won Anglo Celt Cups with Donegal, he's coming from a very experienced background.

“I've had a bit of experience myself and even from teaching as well, you're working with young people. So there's an atmosphere that you can create with young people and there's a different type of atmosphere you can create with more experienced players and older players. People respond to different ways of managing and different ways of coaching and these young boys have embraced it.

“I was chatting to Martin McGowan before the game and every single player he chatted to is loving it. We went to Enniscrone a couple of weeks ago for a training camp. The atmosphere and the craic. Sunday morning we went onto the beach, 30 men in the tide. The banter was brilliant, playing a bit of football on the beach, having a bit of craic - living life. 

“That's what I said to them boys after the game go out tonight as a group, have a couple of beers, celebrate, not celebrate. .. that's the wrong word but go out and really, really be proud of what you did there today because that was a phenomenal game of football, it really was.”

The Leitrim manager put the struggles against Kildare down to a meltdown in midfield when the game was delicately poised at 7-5 in Newbridge: “People look at last week and they look at the scoreline, 7-5 after 28 minutes last week and we were actually doing OK and we'd created two or three big goal chances, hadn't taken them.

“Then Kildare win 10 kickouts in a row and get nine points. Armagh lost seven kickouts in a row in the Ulster final, conceding six points. Louth won 10 kickouts in a row in the Leinster final and controlled the game towards the end. The modern game is all about winning that break ball. 

“People ask about winning the breaking ball, is it a skill, is it awareness, is it luck, is it timing? There's a bit of everything in it but there's an element of luck as well. The ball can fall for you but one thing that I said to the boys today was that we didn't want to give up on any breaking balls, I thought we'd give up on a few kickouts last week and I think the boys were disappointed with that.”

The post match debrief brought home a few truths about winning that breaking ball according to the manager as Poacher and his management team went after the Sligo kickout: “We did our video work during the week, we realised that we need to show a bit more desire and aggression around that breaking ball and we did that today.

“I thought we absolutely destroyed Devaney’s kickouts as well. We'd done our homework, I thought Lyons would play because they play box 2 and 4, they like to cut back kickouts, they like to get the kickouts away short on those channels and we shut that off. I thought we did that really well and forced him to go long.

“Sligo don't particularly like going long and we had a serious amount of joy on that and that gave us a great platform and foothold to win the game but the game swung at one moment.”

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That one moment was not the late raft of goal chances but when Darren Cox was denied a goal that would have put Leitrim ten clear, a moment Poacher agrees was crucial: “If we go 2-12 to 0-8 up, the game is over. The game is over because of the control we had, the confidence we had at that stage, the crowd was up. I know Leitrim fans haven’t had an awful lot of cheer about this year but you could feel the energy, I could feel it.

"The players were playing with their tails up, Tom Prior was running riot, Barry was having a field day, Coxie was on a lot of ball and those players, they're young lads. They play off energy, they play off confidence and if that goal is in, there's no way that we lose that game. But from that goal chance, down the field and an inter-county footballer clips a ball over the bar from the top of the arc with a gale force win behind him, how's that worth two points? 

“How is that skill, an inter-county footballer clipping a free, I could go over there now with ten balls and put nine of them over with that breeze, you could do the same, that's the reality and it's an aspect of the game that needs to be looked at because if we took those two-pointers out of the game today, we probably would have won the game if you'd looked at the balance of play.

“I’m not putting it on that but the bottom line is, it's a massive swing, it's not now a two-point swing or a three-point swing, it's a five-point swing. We go in 2-12 to 0-8 with 20 minutes, 18 minutes to go and we're winning that game.”