It will take Leitrim time to reach the level Roscommon are at says manager Steven Poacher

The difference between a Division 1 team and a Division 4 team was starkly illustrated in Bekan last Sunday and manager Steven Poacher has stressed that it will take Leitrim time to reach the levels illustrated by Roscommon in the FBD Insurance Connacht League.

Roscommon cruised to a 5-17 to 0-14 victory and Poacher, a former coach with the Rossies, says it will take Leitrim time to reach the standard exhibited by the victors: “We had a lot of young lads  there today and it's a learning curve for them. Roscommon are a seasoned team, they're a Division 1 team, they've good forwards. 

“That group there has been committed to a really strong strength and conditioning programme over the last four or five years and you can see it. I was chatting to Diarmuid Murtagh before the game and he was saying everyone in that panel was there last year, they're playing well. 

“Club football in Roscommon is strong, you Brigid’s in an All-Ireland Final, Pearses were in an All-Ireland Semi-Final a couple of years ago, Strokestown were in an All-Ireland Semi-Final, club football at Roscommon is very, very strong and they're a very, very strong footballing outfit.”

The big difference between the teams was in the middle third and execution of shots: “Look, it's Division 1 against Division 4 lads and when you are playing a Division 1 team and you give them opportunities to punish you. In the first half we had 15 shots, they had 17 shots, they took 14 scores.

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“I think we took eight so  we were down 53%, conversion rate, they were up around 88, 89, that's Division 1 football, that's the level you're at. With these new rules lads, two very simple things have to happen - when you possess the ball, you have to get a score or put the ball wide. 

“We were turned over I think five or six times in the first half, and they just punished us, they were just clinical. Diarmuid Murtagh  is a hard man to mark at the best of times but when you give him 40, 50 yards of space there, he's going to punish you.”

With a plethora of players unavailable on the sidelines, the main aim of the FBD League is to get game time to players: “We just learn from it, it's about minutes on the legs. We have a lot of men that have to come back into the team and obviously we played today with a very makeshift midfield - Mark definitely does not play midfield, Keith Keegan does not play midfield.

“Cillian McGloin played a wee bit there last year but we lost him after 10 minutes, did a wee bit of a tweak, so you're going into the game against Keith Doyle who is a very seasoned campaigner. They're big and strong round the middle and with the new rules, if you can't win kick-outs, you're in trouble, and we just lost too many kick-outs in the first half.”

Yet the Leitrim manager was not despondent: “You can see men standing beside me today, Barry McNulty, Ryan O'Rourke, Conor Reynolds - seasoned campaigners, really fine footballers - not just some of the best footballers in Leitrim, but some of the best footballers in Connacht. 

“Those lads come back into the team over the next few weeks and it'll strengthen things up and we'll be in a better place then come the start of the league. We've got a group that are working hard, they're training hard but this is the level you have to try and get to.

“You need to be fit, you need to be strong, with the new rules, that middle eight, it's a huge amount of athleticism in the modern game now. You need to be at those levels but it'll take us time.”

Nevertheless, the Leitrim manager declared himself happy with his squad and promised they will be ready for the start of the Allianz NFL Division 4 campaign against Wicklow in Aughrim later this month: “What we want to do, I said this last year multiple times, is create a good bunch of lads that want to commit to Leitrim for five, six, seven years and see where it takes them. 

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“This coming in for a year, gone for a year, in for a year, gone for a year, it gets you nowhere. What we want to do is we want to get the right men in. Anyone who we want in is in and that's it, and we're going to get our heads down over the next few weeks, work hard, and build towards Aughrim on January 25.”

Despite the loss suffered by his young side, featuring five players who are U20 this year, Poacher said he was happy with how preparations are going at the moment: “We've got a decent pre-season, and please God, we can  get as many players available for Wicklow,  fit and ready for Aughrim -  that'll be a serious challenge.

“Obviously Wicklow and Antrim are massive, massive favourites to get out of the Division Four, so it's a really tough start for us but we'll go there and we'll give it a good go.”