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22 Jan 2026
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22 Jan 2026
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Leitrim U20 manager Enda Lyons chatting with Adrian Dockery last Sunday Picture: Willie Donnellan
Pride was the overwhelming feeling Enda Lyons spoke of after last Saturday’s FBD Insurance Connacht League Plate Final - pride in the display of his young players and pride in fulfilling a dream of managing the Leitrim Senior team.
Speaking after the game, Leitrim’s U20 manager said “I'm very proud of the group tonight - we decided with Stevie that we kind of mixed the team up. Stevie wanted to see some of the seniors and obviously we wanted to see some of them in their 20s as well. First night out, we’re only back about four weeks realistically so very very proud of the boys.
“Obviously honoured to manage Leitrim, the thing that I've always wanted to do and very honoured that Stevie asked me to be over the group tonight and I'm very, very happy how things went. Disappointed we didn't win but if you had to say with going into injury time there were only five down, I'd have taken it as well.”
The former Leitrim keeper was thrilled with the attitude shown by his team, even if there are areas that need work: “Serious work rate, serious heart, we never gave up. Probably the difference that our boys found around the 20 boys found tonight was that mistakes, little mistakes cost you big times in the games.
“But that's a learning for us like I'm hugely proud. To see Hugh Bracken, never ever played a game for Leitrim ,to come on tonight a corner back went up the field and score a point with his first touch. It's hugely satisfying for me for the work that we've been doing with the boys.
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“We're doing quite a bit of work on skills work, we still have a lot of work to do physically but we're getting there, we're only back training so it's great and we're not out until March 25, but hugely proud of the group. We could have fell away there when we were eight or nine down but we came back we got the goal, we got another score.
“Maybe if we pushed up we could have got a few more scores and to get the team closer but also to see the way the boys stood up and played for that Leitrim jersey and I hope everybody's very proud of them tonight because I certainly am walking away from here tonight.”
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