Promotion gone admits Leitrim manager Poacher after "humbling and embarrassing" loss in Clonmel

Never once to mince his words nor sugar-coat a bad day, a clearly despondent Steven Poacher left nobody in any doubt how he felt after Leitrim’s 1-18 to 0-8 loss to Tipperary last Sunday in Clonmel, describing the first half performance as “Just humbling, embarrassing, poor.”

With a third loss in the Allianz NFL Division 4 campaign, Poacher admitted that the prospect of a Leitrim promotion was gone and the Leitrim manager was not happy with the team’s first half performance as Tipperary, playing against the strong wind, established a 1-12 to 0-5 interval lead.

Asked about a disappointing Leitrim performance, Steven simply said “Just humbling, embarrassing, poor - people travelled a long distance to come down here and watch that. Families, friends, you know - we have a very, very loyal, small but loyal Leitrim following that follow the team everywhere and I'm sure they'll be bitterly disappointed and rightly so.

“We're bitterly disappointed - that first half, boys, was just incredibly poor, incredibly poor from start to finish. Just from minute one when they won the throw-in, just too passive, standing off, not enough aggression in our game, not enough intensity.

“Go to the start of the second half and you saw there was a bit of intent and a bit of intensity but it was too late. It was too late, the game's gone at that stage. The way the game is now, lads,you have to get momentum into your game, you have to get energy and we just didn't get that in the first half at all.”

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Promotion, although not mathematically ruled out, was gone according to the Leitrim manager: “The league is gone, promotion's gone now. It's not something that we talked about at great length because they are a very, very young group. For them to get promoted next year physically, are we ready for the demands of Division 3? 

“I don't know, that's a question for another day but certainly, there's a lot of learning to do and we have to do it quickly. We missed a lot of chances in the first half, kicking simple two-pointed frees wide at the top of the arc when we had a bit of a breeze in our backs. Those things just can't happen at this level.”

The Leitrim manager also launched an impassioned defence of his players, hailing their commitment to the cause: “These boys left their houses yesterday morning at 9 o'clock to get on a bus, travel four or five hours down here, spend the evening together, up this morning, not be home from 8 to 9, 10 o'clock at night. 

“It's easy to knock them and hide behind computer screens and standing over fences shouting abuse. But go in there and look at the work they're putting in, the effort they're putting in, and how hard they're hurting. I've no interest in what anyone else thinks. There's a good group of young men in there, they just have to keep working hard and please God we'll get there.”

SEE THIS WEEK'S LEITRIM OBSERVER FOR MORE FROM LEITRIM MANAGER STEVEN POACHER