Carlow taking nothing for granted says manager Ed Burke after victory over Leitrim

If Leitrim’s ambitions are firmly on winning the Lidl LGFA NFL Division 4 semi-final to secure promotion to Division 3, Carlow manager Ed Burke left nobody in any doubt that his team are fully focused on the same goal.

The Carlow boss didn’t spend  time basking in the glow of an undefeated league campaign but simply stated: “We're not taking anything for granted now, we're going to work really, really hard for three weeks - that semi-final is our final - we saw it two years ago when we played for Fermanagh.

“They'd won seven games in a row, we'd won three and we won by a point so the league games are gone, now it is a knockout game. I don't know who we're going to be playing, Offaly or Longford but we know what threats they pose, Offaly probably should have beaten us the day we played them.

“As I said to Jonny, hopefully we will meet Leitrim again because I think with all due respect, ourselves and Leitrim are probably the two best teams there. But that doesn't mean we'll get to the final so the message is to keep the head down and keep working hard.”

Burke was very aware of the scale of the challenge posed by Leitrim on Sunday: “We knew what threat Leitrim were and you could see what we tried to do in the first half and a lot of that wasn't to feather our own cap, it was to stop Leitrim doing anything and to be honest it didn't work. 

REPORT: CARLOW STUN LEITRIM TO TOP LIDL LGFA NFL DIVISION 4

“We said we'd change the outfit in the second half and look, I think we just brought that little bit more intensity in the second half that caused Leitrim that little bit of trouble. You can see the new rules and it was a really really physical game which is good for both teams. We're delighted to come down here and get a win against the All-Ireland Intermediate champions from two years ago.”

The Carlow manager was delighted to give a lot of players quality game-time over the League and stressed the quality in his panel: “From last week's game against Longford, we made seven changes and I think every one of our panel has got a start or two starts over the course of the league.

“We can trust them all. There was a good 20 panel performance today so we're delighted to come away now and everybody getting a bit of game time. Sometimes people kind of underestimate Carlow - we might not have the biggest panels but we've got really, really good players. 

“I've been here for four of the last five years and I've seen them develop over that time. I've managed Tipperary in the middle, a lot of these players would be starting for the senior  teams.”