Ending League losing streak a massive relief of Leitrim manager Steven Poacher

Ending a losing streak in the League going back almost two years was an important step for Leitrim according to  Steven Poacher as he hailed his team’s 1-16 to 2-8 victory over Waterford last Sunday.

“It is a massive win,” Steven told the Observer after a game that was in the balance 15 minutes from time, adding “We haven't had a league win since March 2024. That's nearly two years. We saw the relief in Celtic Park last night when Derry got over Tyrone. All involved with Derry were highly delighted.”

 The Leitrim manager reiterated his pride in the commitment of his players: “I can't speak highly enough of this group (of Leitrim) lads. These lads have worked so hard. When you are down in Division 4 you probably don't get the same level of publicity as Division 1 and Division 2 teams but those teams put in the same amount of time. That's what has to be recognised.

“They hurt the same as Derry hurt, they hurt the same as Galway hurt. They hurt the same as Kerry and Dublin - their pride is hurting. I thought in the last ten minutes today that we were magnificent.”

The Leitrim boss  felt that his team had absorbed a vital lesson from the loss in Aughrim: “I thought that the control we brought to the game was on another level. We had some of that control in Aughrim last week. That's something we learned from last week. If we had that control in the last ten minutes in Aughrim, we would have won and we would be sitting on four league points now.”

On Leitrim's concession of the two late first half  goals, Steven simply remarked “that's football. They were two comical goals. One was off the post that we didn't react to and the second was a 'bad ball' into the 'square.' We talked about 'boxing out' but we didn't do it. We had done our homework on  Conor Murray and I thought it worked out well for us. Most teams aren't blessed with two point scorers.

“I was surprised that Dermot Ryan (who came on at halftime sub and scored a two pointer) didn't start for them. I thought if we didn't concede two pointers that we would win the game. That was the big thing. I also thought that during the second half we were really impressive.”

 Referring back to how Leitrim controlled the final ten minutes of the game against Waterford, Poacher said “We learned how important that was in Aughrim last week. There are other aspects of today's game that we will probably have to have a look at and when we do we may not be too pleased about them. But that's what we will work on for our next game.”