We felt we were the underdogs says Allen Gaels Man of the Match Radek Oberwan

It says much for the mindset in the Allen Gaels camp that despite being red hot favourites for Sunday’s Smith Monumentals IFC Final, Man of the Match Radek Oberwan revealed that the Drumshanbo outfit regarded themselves as underdogs going into the decider.

“Going into the game today, we felt we were the underdogs,” Radek told the Observer, “That was our mindset throughout the whole year because of what happened last year. In our minds, we were the underdogs and we just came out and put a great display together.”

What happened last year, when Melvin Gaels hit three late goals to snatch victory from Allen Gaels grasp,  had a huge impact on the mindset of Radek and his teammates: “We were thinking about last year for the last 52 weeks, it was a horror, really - just a disaster the way it ended last year.

“You saw every single man  today - we were saying next score, next score. For myself, last year was still in the back of your head and I was like, we need another score. We have standards set to reach, we went over that, but we were like, we need more, we need more.”

The Man of the Match award was nice to get but Radek felt any one of his teammates could have got the nod: “What a performance by the lads, the lads were absolutely superb. Every single one of them there today, they were brilliant. To be honest, every single one of the boys could have got man of the match.

ALLEN GAELS CELEBRATE SMITH MONUMENTALS IFC TRIUMPH IN STYLE - GALLERY

“I thought Karl Foley absolutely superb, the man threw himself at everything, Kieran Kilcline - what an addition he's been as well as being a great man, Ciaran Mc, every single one of those boys could have got man of the match, it just landed on me but  I’m grateful for it.”

Radek  got the all important first goal for Allen Gaels but doesn’t remember much about it: “No, I just remember getting the ball there, somehow it got to me. That kind of settled us down. We were just happy we put a performance together for the whole 60 minutes today. We're absolutely thrilled.”

After injury plagued his season last year, Radek was just grateful to be fit this year: “I felt fairly healthy this year, I got the niggles tidied up and I got a good run out of games. We played 16 or 17 competitive games this year without challenges and today was just game 16 for us. I'm feeling good though. I'm feeling pretty good.”

And should Steven Poacher come calling about a return to the Leitrim Senior team? “I'll have a good think about it. The body's feeling good so hopefully that is the plan.”

Right now, celebrations take priority but it won’t be long before Radek and his teammates turn their attention to a Connacht Semi-Final date with Strokestown: “We were talking about game 16 for the last while after the last game. It's game 17 now. We're going to enjoy today, probably enjoy tomorrow. 

“We won't go too crazy, we have another game to prepare for in three weeks' time. We'll think about that now, next week or so. Kieran has played against a few of them, they know him well. Hopefully we get a good run at it now and pick up a win or two.”