Poacher delighted with Leitrim's display in Tuam and reaction to Roscommon defeat

Lessons from the loss to Roscommon were put into good use in Tuam last Saturday believes manager Steven Poacher as he professed himself “absolutely delighted” with Leitrim’s display against Galway.

Speaking after the game, Steven said “Absolutely delighted. We used 26 players today which was brilliant. We strategically had to bring a few people on in the first half. We were actually leading when we pulled probably most of our main men off but we were really honing in today on that first 40, 45 minutes and getting a really good performance out of it. 

“I think we were leading 13-12 when they got the penalty - the arse fell out of it towards the end but that was to be expected. You have young lads coming on the field there that are probably making their senior debuts. Peter Prior and Hugh Clancy making their senior debuts, great lads. 

“You can't expect them to go against a seasoned team like Galway and it just clicks straight away. It is a great experience for them. Great learning curve for them. But, we'll grow, we'll develop, we'll learn and we'll move on from this and we'll be better for it.”

Picking themselves up after an 18 point mauling from Roscommon wasn’t easy but Steven believes Leitrim shaped up much better than the scoreline showed: “The result was hard but, we were looking at the game the other night and I said, you take out those four sloppy goals we conceded in the first half, three goals in 90 seconds, you take out those three goals and all of a sudden it's a draw game or a one-point game.

REACTION: POACHER WANTS PLAYERS WHO WANT TO BE THERE FOR LEITRIM

“People look at a scoreline but they don't actually look at the game and pull it apart like we do as coaches. Some of our attacking players last week with four or five U20s were absolutely outstanding against a team like Roscommon who probably had 10 or 11 men who played Division 1 football this year. 

“Not delighted with the scoreline, but delighted with some of the performance and some elements of our play. Disappointed and disgusted with our kick-outs at times and our reaction to kick-outs. But, the big improvement was today, the reaction was today. You've seen it yourself - I thought for 45 minutes we were absolutely brilliant there today.”

Rectifying problems with the Leitrim kickout was a major factor in an improved display: “We took a really good deep, deep, deep, hard dive into our analysis of our kick-out and we struggled last week badly but we were actually very good today at actually reacting to losing the kick-out.

“The way the game's gone now, you're actually more vulnerable in your own kick-out than you are in the opposition's and I thought we took Conor Flaherty's kick-out apart today at times. I thought we were really, really good and that's probably a guy that's probably going to maybe possibly start for them in the Championship but I thought we were amazing in their kick-out at times.”

Getting game time into his players was the main requirement from the trip to Tuam with the Leitrim boss not aware there is another FBD game against London next weekend: “Great to see Conor Reynolds back on the field in, I think, his first game since the league final two years ago so fantastic to see him get 20 minutes under his belt. Brilliant to see Ryan O'Rourke back for 25 minutes, Conor Quinn got 40 minutes there.

"Donal Feely got 40 minutes so it's building for Aughrim, that's the  main goal and today was just another little step forward in the right direction. Our focus is Aughrim - I didn't even know we had a game next week, that's the truth so, we'll look at that and we'll find out what the details of that are. Lads who need a bit of game time will probably get it next week.”