Powerful Waterford just as difficult for Leitrim as Dublin predicts manager

From the frying pan into the fire might sum up Leitrim’s predicament on Saturday when a strong Waterford come to Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada (2pm throw-in)  to take on Leitrim in the TG4 LGFA All-Ireland SFC as Leitrim struggle to recover from the mauling they received last Sunday.

Waterford drew with Dublin the week before in Dungarvan and after the Jackies’ 35 point win, the Deise women need a 36 point win to top the group and Leitrim manager Jonny Garrity admits it will not be an easy task to pick up his troops: “It'll be a hard job unfortunately the way the group has worked out now is that you're talking about two All-Ireland contenders without a shadow of a doubt and quite possibly the two favourites. 

“I think Dublin were the bookies favourites before today and Waterford are obviously a match for them based on last week's performance. It just makes it very difficult because what Dublin have done is set a target and that target now is what Waterford will be looking to try to beat next week.”

Garrity is well aware of the challenge posed by the Munster side but he believes that Leitrim are capable of much better than they showed last Sunday: “We know that Waterford are an extremely powerful, strong running team. They've had the ability to sit back, have a week off and watch us and see us coming so it's going to be a big challenge.

“Having said that, we know there is a better performance in us. A lot of our problems today came from us and, as awesome as Dublin were, a lot of the score concessions were down to our own mistakes and inability to play the system that we wanted to play as well as we wanted.

“If we can do that better and mind our own house better then I've got no doubts that our performance and our chances of getting a result will greatly increase next week.”