Donegal won't be taken for granted despite Leitrim's eagerness for the fray - Garrity

It may be a short turnaround but manager Jonny Garrity says that Leitrim are more than happy to see their TG4 LGFA All-Ireland SFC Relegation Final come up so quickly, writes John Connolly.

Fresh from Saturday’s 2-14 to 0-13 loss at the hands of Mayo, many would have felt that a longer break between games would have been beneficial ahead of next Saturday’s relegation scrap with Donegal but not the Leitrim boss who is, as he puts it, ‘happy enough to go next week’!

“We don't particularly want a long layoff to be honest,” Jonny told the Observer, adding “Perhaps between the group games and the All-Ireland group stage, we might have wanted a week or two there to catch our breath but it was a pretty good performance today. We want to go again. 

“We're happy enough to go next week - we want to learn those couple of lessons we need to take from the Mayo game to improve us further. I've got no problems going again, we're itching to get out now.”

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Let nobody mistake Garrity’s eagerness for the fray to over-confidence against a Donegal squad who went down to a 0-15 to 0-5 defeat on Saturday at the hands of Armagh in the other relegation semi-final with Garrity all too aware of the threat Donegal pose: “Without doubt - they're always contesting Ulster titles and they're never far away. 

“They're in a position where they don't want to be as well, the same as us. They're a good team, we know that. They play very defensively. They're not pushing many players forward. They're keeping a lot behind the ball and because of that you'll see their scoring totals are very low. 

“But they don't tend to concede a lot either. It'll probably be a tense game. It'll probably be a game where mistakes will be costly from either side. It'll be one for the nerves probably.”

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Interestingly, Leitrim played Donegal in a challenge game recently enough so both teams are well aware of the challenge they face: “We played Donegal a month or two ago in a challenge game and we know there is quality all over undoubtedly. It's going to throw up a real challenge and it'll be an interesting game. We're just going to bring everything we've got and hopefully on the day it'll be enough.”